Effect of partial replacement of sand by fine crumb rubber on impact load behavior of concrete beam: experiment and nonlinear dynamic analysis

The effect of partial replacement of sand by fine crumb rubber on the impact load performance of concrete was investigated experimentally and numerically. Specimens were prepared for 5, 10 and 20 % replacements by volume of sand. For each case, three beams of size 400 x 100 x 50 mm were loaded to failure in a drop-weight impact machine by subjecting it to 20 N weight from 300 mm height, and similar beams were tested under static load. In both cases, the load-displacement and fracture energy were studied. The dynamic beam behavior was also analyzed numerically using the finite-element method based LUSAS V.14 software. It was found that, the impact tup, and inertial and bending loads increased with increase of sand replacement by fine crumb rubber, while the static peak bending load always decreased. The rubberize concrete was stronger and more energy-absorbing under impact loading, than under static loading.