Damage response of conventionally reinforced two-way spanning concrete slab under eccentric impacting drop weight loading

Reinforced concrete(RC)structures are generally designed to carry quasi-static gravity loads through almost indispensable components namely slab,however,it may be subjected to high intense loads induced from the impact of projectiles generated by the tornado,falling construction equipment,and also from accidental explosions during their construction and service lifespan.Impacts due to rock/boulder falls do occur on the structures located especially in hilly areas.Such loadings are not predictable but may cause severe damage to the slab/structure.It stimulates structural engineers and researchers to investigate and understand the dynamic response of RC structures under such impulsive loading.This research work first investigates the performance of 1000×1000×75 mm^(3)conventionally reinforced two-way spanning normal strength concrete slab with only tension reinforcement(0.88%)under the concentric impact load(1035 N)using the finite element method based computer code,ABAQUS/Explicit-v.6.15.The impact load is delivered to the centroid of the slab using a solid-steel cylindroconical impactor(drop weight)with a flat nose of diameter 40 mm,having a total mass of 105 kg released from a fixed height of 2500 mm.Two popular concrete constitutive models in ABAQUS namely;Holmquist-Johnson-Cook(HJC)and Concrete Damage Plasticity(CDP),with strain rate effects as per fib MODEL CODE 2010,are used to model the concrete material behavior to impact loading and to simulate the damage to the slab.The slab response using these two models is analyzed and compared with the impact test results.The strain rate effect on the reinforcing steel bars has been incorporated in the analysis using the Malvar and Crawford(1998)approach.A classical elastoplastic kinematic idealization is considered to model the steel impactor and support system.Results reveal that the HJC model gives a little overestimation of peak displacement,maximum acceleration,and damage of the slab while the predictions given by the CDP model are in reasonable agreement with the experimental test results/observations available in the open literature.Following the validation of the numerical model,analyses have been extended to further investigate the damage response of the slab under eccentric impact loadings.In addition to the concentric location(P1)of the impacting device,five locations on a quarter of the slab i.e.,two along the diagonal(P2&P3),the other two along the mid-span(P4&P5),and the last one(P6)between P3 and P5,covering the entire slab,are considered.Computational results have been discussed and compared,and the evaluation of the most damaging location(s)of the impact is investigated.It has been found that the most critical location of the impact is not the centroid of the slab but the eccentric one with the eccentricity of 1/6th of the span from the centroid along the mid-span section.

Blast resistance of air-backed RC slab against underwater contact explosion

Reinforced concrete(RC)structures are common in engineering,and usually exposed to air or water,may be subjected to various blast scenarios.This paper aims to investigate the blast resistance of an airbacked RC slab against underwater contact explosions(UWCEs).A detailed numerical model based on CLE method considering explosive,water,air,and RC slab is developed to examine the structural behavior of the air-backed RC slab due to UWCEs.At first,the reliability of the numerical method is validated by comparing the numerical results of an UWCE test with experimental data.Then,the difference in dynamic behavior of air-backed and water-backed RC slabs due to UWCEs is explored with the calibrated model.The results indicate that the blast response of the air-backed slab induced by UWCE is fiercer than that of water-backed slab with equal charge mass.In addition,parametric studies are also conducted to explore the effects of the charge mass,standoff distance,reinforcement spacing,concrete compression strength,and boundary condition on the blast performance of the air-backed RC slab.

Numerical study on local failures of reinforced concrete slabs against underwater close-in explosions

Reinforced concrete(RC)slabs are the primary load-carrying member of underwater facilities.They can suffer severe local failures such as cratering,spalling,or breaching as a result of underwater close-in(UWCI)explosions.In this study,we established a fully validated high-fidelity finite element analysis approach to precisely reproduce the local failures of RC slabs after a UWCI explosion.A recently proposed dynamic constitutive model is used to describe wet concrete.The effects of free water content on the material properties,including the tensile/compressive strength,elastic modulus,strain rate effect,failure strength surface,and equation of state,are comprehensively calibrated based on existing test data.The calibrated material parameters are then verified by a single-element test.A high-fidelity finite element analysis(FEA)approach of an RC slab subjected to a UWCI explosion is established using an arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian(ALE)algorithm.Simulating previous UWCI explosion tests on RC orifice targets and underwater contact explosion tests on saturated concrete slabs showed that the established FEA approach could accurately reproduce the pressure-time history in water and damage patterns,including the cracking,cratering,and spalling,of the RC orifice target and saturated concrete slab.Furthermore,parametric studies conducted by simulating an RC slab subjected to a UWCI explosion showed that:(i)the local failure of an RC slab enlarges with increased charge weight,reduced standoff distance,and reduced structural thickness;(ii)compared to a water-backed RC slab,an air-backed RC slab exhibits much more obvious local and structural failure.Lastly,to aid the anti-explosion design of relevant underwater facilities,based on over 90 simulation cases empirical formulae are summarized to predict local failure modes,i.e.,no spall,spall,and breach,of water-and air-backed RC slabs subjected to a UWCI explosion.

Simulation of Airblast Load and Its Effect on RC Structures

In the analysis of a structure subjected to an explosion event, the determination of the blast load constitutes a crucial step. The effect of the blast load on the structure depends not only on the peak shock overpressure, but also the impulse (hence the duration). For structures with a regular geometry, the blast load may be fairly well estimated using appropriate empirical formulae; however, for more complex situations, a direct simulation using appropriate computational techniques is necessary. This paper presents a numerical simulation study on the prediction of the blast load in free air using a hydrocode, with focus on the sensitivity of the simulated blast load to the mesh grid size. The simulation results are compared with empirical predictions. It is found that the simulated blast load is sensitive to the mesh size, especially in the close-in range, and with a practically affordable mesh grid density, the blast load tends to be systematically underestimated. The study is extended to internal blast cases. An example concrete slab under internal explosion is analyzed using a coupled analysis scheme. The internal blast load from the simulation is examined and the response of the RC slab is commented.

Degradation and Mechanism of the Mechanics and Durability of Reinforced Concrete Slab in A Marine Environment

An experimental research was conducted to determine the corrosion and bearing capacity of a reinforced concrete（RC） slab at different ages in a marine environment.Results show that the development of corrosion-induced cracks on a slab in a marine environment can be divided into three stages according to crack morphology at the bottom of the slab.In the first stage,cracks appear.In the second stage,cracks develop from the edges to the middle of the slab.In the third stage,longitudinal and transverse corrosion-induced cracks coexist.The corrosion ratio of reinforcements nonlinearly increases with the age,and the relationship between the corrosion ratio of the reinforcements and the corrosion-induced crack width of the concrete is established.The flexural capacity of the corroded RC slab nonlinearly decreases with the age,and the model for the bearing capacity factor of the corroded RC slab is established.The mid-span deflection of the corroded RC slab that corresponds to the yield of the reinforcements linearly increases with the increase in corrosion ratio.Finally,the mechanisms of corrosion morphology and the degradation of the mechanical properties of an RC slab in a marine environment are discussed on the basis of the basic theories of steel corrosion in concrete and concrete structure design.

Nonlinear numerical simulation of punching shear behavior of reinforced concrete flat slabs with shear-heads

This paper examines the structural response of reinforced concrete flat slabs,provided with flillyembedded shear-heads,through detailed three-dimensional nonlinear numerical simulations and parametric assessments using concrete damage plasticity models.Validations of the adopted nonlinear finite element procedures are carried out against experimental results from three test series.After gaining confidence in the ability of the numerical models to predict closely the full inelastic response and failure modes,numerical investigations are carried out in order to examine the influence of key material and geometric parameters.The results of these numerical assessments enable the identification of three modes of failure as a function of the interaction between the shear-head and surrounding concrete.Based on the findings,coupled with results from previous studies,analytical models are proposed for predicting the rotational response as well as the ultimate strength of such slab systems.Practical recommendations are also provided for the design of shear-heads in RC slabs,including the embedment length and section size.The analytical expressions proposed in this paper,based on a wide-ranging parametric assessment,are shown to offer a more reliable design approach in comparison with existing methods for all types of shear-heads,and are suitable for direct practical application.