Modelling the response of reinforced concrete panels under blast loading

A finite element model is developed for the simulation of the structural response of steel-reinforced concrete panels to blast loading using LS-DYNA. The effect of element size on the dynamic material model of concrete is investigated and strain-rate effects on concrete in tension and compression are accounted for separately in the model. The model is validated by comparing the computed results with experimental data from the literature. In addition, a parametric study is carried out to investigate the effects of charge weight, standoff distance, panel thickness and reinforcement ratio on the blast resistance of reinforced concrete panels.     

Numerical evaluation of the retrofit effectiveness for GFRP retrofitted concrete slab subjected to blast pressure

For retrofitting structures against blast loads, sufficient ductility and strength should be provided by using high-performance materials such as fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composites. The effectiveness of retrofit materials needs to be precisely evaluated for the retrofitting design based on the dynamic material responses under blast loads. In this study, refined FEM analysis with high-strain rate dependent material model and debonding failure model is conducted for evaluating the FRP retrofitting effectiveness. The structural behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) slab retrofitted with glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) under blast pressure is simulated and the analysis results are verified with the previous experimental results.     

爆炸冲击下水底隧道的动态响应及毁伤模式研究

考虑炸药起爆、冲击波传播、冲击波与结构的相互作用以及结构的动态响应等复杂过程,基于Lagrange-Euler耦合算法,建立了水底隧道水下爆炸的全耦合数值仿真模型。通过与爆炸试验结果进行对比,验证了数值模型的可靠性;研究了水下爆炸冲击荷载作用下的水底隧道的毁伤破坏过程、空间分布规律及破坏模式。结果表明:水底隧道的破坏模式不仅与隧道自身的动力特性有关,还取决于起爆距离及炸药当量等;隧道的破坏模式为局部冲切或剥落破坏、弯曲破坏伴随着局部剥落破坏以及整体弯曲破坏。     

爆炸冲击下水底隧道的动态响应及毁伤模式研究

考虑炸药起爆、冲击波传播、冲击波与结构的相互作用以及结构的动态响应等复杂过程,基于Lagrange-Euler耦合算法,建立了水底隧道水下爆炸的全耦合数值仿真模型。通过与爆炸试验结果进行对比,验证了数值模型的可靠性;研究了水下爆炸冲击荷载作用下的水底隧道的毁伤破坏过程、空间分布规律及破坏模式。结果表明:水底隧道的破坏模式不仅与隧道自身的动力特性有关,还取决于起爆距离及炸药当量等;隧道的破坏模式为局部冲切或剥落破坏、弯曲破坏伴随着局部剥落破坏以及整体弯曲破坏。     

Fly ash concrete subjected to thermal cyclic loads

The present study describes the behaviour of concrete as well as fly ash concrete when subjected to varying number of high temperature heating cycles. A Concrete mix (1:2.37:2.98) with 340 kg/m³ cement and w/cm ratio 0.45 was prepared. Cement was replaced by varying percentages (0%, 20%, 40%, 50% and 60%) of fly ash by weight of cement. The concrete was subjected to a constant temperature of 200°C for 7, 14, 21 and 28 heating cycles. One heating cycle corresponds to 8 h heating and subsequent cooling in 24 h. Subsequently the effect of temperature on the properties of the concrete was investigated and compared with that of the properties of unheated concrete. The compressive strength of plain as well as fly ash concrete increased when it was subjected to thermal cyclic loads. Moreover, the compressive strength increased with an increase in number of heating cycles. Thermal conductivity of concrete was found to decrease with an increase in the fly ash content.     

Residual strength of blast damaged reinforced concrete columns

Columns are the key load-bearing elements in frame structures and exterior columns are probably the most vulnerable structural components to terrorist attacks. Column failure is normally the primary cause of progressive failure in frame structures. A high-fidelity physics-based computer program, LS-DYNA was utilized in this study to provide numerical simulations of the dynamic responses and residual axial strength of reinforced concrete columns subjected to short standoff blast conditions. The finite element (FE) model is discussed in detail and verified through correlated experimental studies. An extensive parametric study was carried out on a series of 12 columns to investigate the effects of transverse reinforcement ratio, axial load ratio, longitudinal reinforcement ratio, and column aspect ratio. These various parameters were incorporated into a proposed formula, capable of estimating the residual axial capacity ratio based on the mid-height displacement to height ratios.     

Defect identification under uncertain blast loading

A novel finite element-based system identification procedure is proposed to detect defects in existing frame structures when excited by blast loadings. The procedure is a linear time-domain system identification technique where the structure is represented by finite elements and the input excitation is not required to identify the structure. It identifies stiffness parameter (EI/L) of all the elements and tracks the changes in them to locate the defect spots. The similar procedure can also be used to monitor health of structures just after natural events like strong earthquakes and high winds. With the help of several numerical examples, it is shown that the algorithm can identify defect-free and defective structures even in the presence of noise in the output response information. The accuracy of the method is much better than other methods currently available even when input excitation information was used for identification purpose. The method not only detects defective elements but also locate the defect spot more accurately within the defective element. The structures can be excited by single or multiple blast loadings and the defect can be relatively small and large. With the help of several examples, it is established that the proposed method can be used as a nondestructive defect evaluation procedure for the health assessment of existing structures.     

Hybrid composite rods subjected to excessive bending loads

Glass fiber/carbon fiber/epoxy hybrid composite rods were investigated in this research for their resistance to excessive bending. The rods are presently being used as the load bearing component of the Aluminum Conductor Composite Core/Trapezoidal Wire (ACCC/TW™) design. The ACCC/TW™ design is one of the most serious candidates to replace the existing conductor designs based on steel and aluminum wires. The effects of mandrel size and thickness of the insulating glass fiber composite sheath on the axial compressive stress state during bending of the ACCC rod were numerically investigated by performing non-linear finite element analyses of the conductor wrapping process. In addition, two sets of compression experiments were performed on composite specimens in order to determine the ultimate compressive strength of the ACCC rod and of the carbon fiber composite alone. During the compression tests, acoustic emissions were monitored from the specimens to determine if a different failure process exists for the hybrid composite as opposed to a traditional uni-directional long fiber composite. Proof tests, and subsequent Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) work of each type of composite were also performed to better understand the failure process. It was clearly demonstrated in this research that ACCC rods will be mechanically damaged by excessive bending over small diameter mandrels used for transportation and installation purposes. This work should be of great help to the manufacturers and potential users of the ACCC conductors around the world.     

An experimental and numerical study of reinforced ultra-high performance concrete slabs under blast loads

Ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) which is characterized by high strength, high ductility and high toughness has been widely applied in modern structure construction. Outstanding mechanical feature of UHPC not only enables strong yet slim structure design but also highlights its potential in protective engineering against extreme loads like impact or explosion. In this research a series of reinforced concrete slabs are tested to determine their response under explosive loading conditions. Concrete materials used in the slab construction are ultra-high strength concrete (UHPC) and normal strength concrete (NSC). In total five slabs are tested including four UHPC slabs with varying reinforcement ratios and one control NSC slab with normal reinforcement. Explosive charges with TNT equivalent weights ranging from 1.0 to 14.0 kg at scaled distances ranging from 0.41 to 3.05 m/kg^1/3 are used in the current experiments. Test results verified the effectiveness of UHPC slabs against blast loads. Numerical models are established in LS-DYNA to reproduce the field blast tests on UHPC slabs. The numerical results are compared with the field test data, and the feasibility and validity of the numerical predictions of UHPC slab responses are demonstrated.     

Finite element modelling of multiple cohesive discrete crack propagation in reinforced concrete beams

This paper presents a finite element (FE) model for fully automatic simulation of multiple discrete crack propagation in reinforced concrete (RC) beams. The discrete cracks are modelled based on the cohesive/fictitious crack concept using nonlinear interface elements with a bilinear tensile softening constitutive law. The model comprises an energy-based crack propagation criterion, a simple remeshing procedure to accommodate crack propagations, two state variable mapping methods to transfer structural responses from one FE mesh to another, and a local arc-length algorithm to solve system equations characterised by material softening. The bond-slip behaviour between reinforcing bars and surrounding concrete is modelled by a tension-softening element. An example RC beam with well-documented test data is simulated. The model is found capable of automatically modelling multiple crack propagation. The predicted cracking process and distributed crack pattern are in close agreement with experimental observations. The load-deflection relations are accurately predicted up to a point when compressive cracking becomes dominant. The effects of bond-slip modelling and the efficiency and effectiveness of the numerical algorithms, together with the limitations of the current model, are also discussed.     

Engineering assessment of cracked structures subjected to dynamic loads using fracture mechanics assessment

This paper presents practical guidance on the assessment of cracked structures subjected to dynamic loading. General reviews of fracture behaviour of structures subjected to dynamic loading are presented. A series of finite element (FE) analyses have been carried out to study the effects of dynamic loading on both fracture toughness specimens under rapid loads and cracked connections in steel framed structures under earthquake loads. FE results of submodel analyses of cracked connections are compared with the results from a simplified method. The simplified method can reduce the analysis time enormously and allows design engineers to assess the possibility of connection fractures, or determine approximate values of toughness and defect size requirements for given peak stress and strain level.     

Simulation of crash tests for high containment levels of road safety barriers

This paper presents the results of computer simulations of road safety barrier behaviour under vehicle crash conditions for high containment levels as mandated by the European standard EN 1317. Simulations were performed with the explicit finite element code LS-DYNA, running on a multiprocessor computational platform. A very good agreement of simulation and real crash tests results was observed, which in turn justifies the use of computer simulations in the process of development and certification of road safety barriers.     

Core crush criterion to determine the strength of sandwich composite structures subjected to compression after impact

In this study a core crush criterion is proposed to determine the residual strength of impacted sandwich structures. The core of the sandwich is made of a Nomex Honeycomb core and the faces are laminated and remain thin. The mechanism of failure of this kind of structure under post-impact compressive loading is due to interaction between three mechanical behaviors: geometrical nonlinearity due to the skin’s neutral line off-set in the dent area, nonlinear response of the core and damages to the skins. For the type of sandwich analysed in this study, initially the core crushes at the apex of the damage. Using a finite element discrete modelling of the core previously proposed by the authors, the load corresponding to the crushing of the first cell can be computed and it gives the value of the residual strength for our criterion. Some geometric and material hypotheses are assumed in the damaged area mainly based on non-destructive inspection (NDI). The criterion is then applied to tests modelled by Lacy and Hwang [Lacy TE, Hwang Y. Numerical modelling of impact-damaged sandwich composites subjected to compression after impact loading. Compos Struct 2003;61:115–128]. It is shown that the criterion allows a good prediction of the tests except in the case of very small dents. Several sensitivity studies on the assumptions were made and it is shown that using this approach, the criterion is robust.     

Mitigating performance of elastic graded polymer foam coating subjected to underwater shock

The possible mitigating effect of elastic Density Graded Polymer Foam (DGPF) coating on the marine structure subjected to underwater shock is investigated. A 1-D unified nonlinear finite element model based on the updated Lagrangian frame is built to solve both the transient response of foam coated structure and dynamic cavitation of water near fluid–structure interface. The mitigating effect of DGPF coating with respect to design parameters such as average density, density difference (uneven density), gradient functions and load intensity is explored. It is illustrated that DGPF is superior in underwater shock protection to the equivalent uniform foam if the foam density is properly distributed while load density is not so high. Lower density foam in the water side is helpful to reduce the total impulse transmitted from water. But the total energy absorption capability may be discounted as the coating enters densification phase earlier.     

Spalling of concrete cover of fiber-reinforced polymer reinforced concrete under thermal loads

A finite element method using a proposed mesoscopic thermoelastic damage model (MTED) is verified for simulating the cracking process of a concrete section reinforced with fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) bars. The cracking was due to the significant difference in thermal expansion properties between the concrete and the FRP materials at elevated temperatures. The numerical study reveals that although a conventional elastic analytical method can provide good estimates of the critical temperature increment of concrete cover failure of a cylindrical concrete section that is reinforced with a single bar, it gives too conservative predictions for typical rectangular sections with multiple bars. The study also shows that the concrete cover and the horizontal bar spacing have more influence than the vertical bar spacing on the determination of the critical temperature increments. Horizontal lapping of bars significantly lowers the critical temperature increment.     

A practical procedure to assess critical defects in pressure vessels subjected to fatigue loads

PSA pressure vessels are equipments used in refining industries for cleaning the hydrogen upcoming from the reforming or hydrogen generation unities. In one regular inspection, some embedded cracks were found in the entrance nozzle-head weld. Then, instead of advance its decommissioning and waste much time until the refinery purchase a new vessel, a structural stress analysis using the finite element method was performed in order to obtain the stress field at the site of the crack, considering the real loading cycle. Despite the acting load is only the internal pressure, the nozzle-head weld is a region where a complex stress state is present (bending and axial stresses). ASME VIII Division 2, Appendix 5 addresses this issue by applying a rule for multiaxial fatigue life estimation for non-proportional loading. With ASME estimated fatigue life results, it was applied the British Standard 7910 procedure to decide if the equipment can operate safely. The calculation also assesses the crack growing by using a modified bi-linear Paris law. Finally, it was computed how long the cracks would take to get to their critical size and then retire definitively the equipment.     

Pressure–impulse diagrams for elastic-plastic-hardening and softening single-degree-of-freedom models subjected to blast loading

Pressure–impulse (P–I) diagrams are commonly used in the preliminary design of protective structures to establish safe response limits for given blast-loading scenarios. In this paper, P–I diagrams of an elastic-plastic-hardening and an elastic-plastic-softening single-degree-of-freedom model are studied. The formal analytical procedure to establish P–I diagrams of such a system is explained. A dimensionless parameter has been used to categorize the response into elastic, elastic-plastic-hardening, elastic-plastic-softening, rigid-plastic-hardening and rigid-plastic-softening. Two different methods to derive and use P–I diagrams have been explained. The feasibility of representing the resistance function as bilinear has been studied with regard to resistance at yield and total area under the resistance curve as system characteristics and maximum displacement as response. An example is included to verify this simplification. Inverse ductility and hardening/softening indexes have been introduced as dimensionless parameters to generalize the solution to all elastic-plastic-hardening and softening systems. Parametric studies have been conducted on the influence of inverse ductility and hardening/softening index on P–I diagrams and it was observed that the blast energy per unit of maximum displacement increases as inverse ductility increases or as hardening index increases (softening index decreases). Small variations in P–I diagrams have been observed with respect to softening index which implies low sensitivity of P–I diagrams with respect to this parameter in the studied range.     

Modelling damage evolution in composite laminates subjected to low velocity impact

In this paper, the impact damage of composite laminates in the form of intra- and inter-laminar cracking was modelled using stress-based criteria for damage initiation, and fracture mechanics techniques to capture its evolution. The nonlinear shear behaviour of the composite was described by the Soutis shear stress–strain semi-empirical formula. The finite element (FE) method was employed to simulate the behaviour of the composite under low velocity impact. Interface cohesive elements were inserted between plies with appropriate mixed-mode damage laws to model delamination. The damage model was implemented in the FE code (Abaqus/Explicit) by a user-defined material subroutine (VUMAT). Numerical results in general gave a good agreement when compared to experimentally obtained curves of impact force and absorbed energy versus time. The various damage mechanisms introduced during the impact event were observed by non-destructive technique (NDT) X-ray radiography and were successfully captured numerically by the proposed damage evolution model.     

A hybrid rigid body rotation model for predicting a response of a temporary soil-filled wall subjected to blast loading

This study is aimed to provide an efficient analytical model to calculate a time history of response for a free-standing soil-filled HESCO Bastion concertainer^® wall subjected to air blast loading. The model is formulated based on the observations of the wall response to air blast loading in the experiments and on the deformation of a finite element model. This hybrid rigid body rotation model combines both a reverse Winkler foundation to model the distribution of pressure at the base of the wall and perfectly plastic shear resistance to model the shear deformation at the corner. The time histories of horizontal and vertical displacements calculated from the proposed analytical model are validated with displacements from both full-scale blast testing of free-standing simple straight walls and calculations using a finite element model.     

Behaviour of multiple composite plates subjected to ballistic impact

An experimental and numerical investigation has been carried out to study the behavior of single and multiple laminated panels subjected to ballistic impact. A pressurized air gun is used to shoot the impactor, which can attain sufficient velocity to penetrate all the laminates in a multiple laminated panel. The incidental and residual velocity of the impactor is measured to estimate the energy absorption in the impact process. The commercially available code ABAQUS has been used for the numerical simulation where the impactor has been modeled as a rigid body and the laminates have been modeled with a simple shell element. A user material model based on a continuum damage mechanics concept for failure mechanism of laminated composites has been implemented. Experimental tests showed that the numerical model could satisfactorily predict the energy absorption. Most interestingly, it has clearly demonstrated a feasible phenomenon behind counterintuitive experimental results for the multiple laminated panels.