Numerical study of reinforced concrete slabs under extreme loading conditions: Impact and fire

Abstract

In the present paper, the influence of thermally induced damage of reinforced concrete (RC) slabs on their impact properties are numerically investigated. The RC slabs are first pre-damaged through fire load and then loaded by the impact of hammer. Transient 3D finite element (FE) thermo-mechanical analysis is performed. Subsequently, impact simulation is conducted based on the explicit multi-body dynamic analysis and contact algorithm with adaptive element deletion technique. As a constitutive law for concrete rate and temperature, dependent microplane model is employed. The co-rotational Cauchy stress tensor and Green-Lagrange strain tensor are used in the framework of total Lagrange FE formulation. The numerical results are discussed and compared with those obtained experimentally. It is shown that pre-damage of RC slab through fire reduces the impact resistance of the slabs, and that the simulation is able to realistically replicate the experimental tests.