RC Structures under High Speed and Impact Loading

Reinforced Concrete (RC) structures may experience various types of loading during their lifespan, which in turn induces a wide spectrum of strain rates. The materials involved in RC structures are strain-rate sensitive and thus, the behavior of structural members can be affected by the loading rates but only significantly when the rate differs by more than one order of magnitude. Majority of past research on RC beams have focused on assessing their behavior under static and relatively slow loading rates while limited attention has been paid to the high loading rates. Therefore, to shed some light in this field, an experimental and numeral study on RC beams was carried out under four different loading rates. Successively, a drop-weight impact test was undertaken on RC beams to evaluate their impact responses to simulate realistic impacts scenario. The acquired data was then used in the development and verification of numerical and analytical methods. Finally, the impact-damaged beams have been retested quasi-statically and corresponding FE model was developed to determine the post-impact residual responses.