A new material model for concrete subjected to high rate of loading

This study presents a modified HJC model for simulating the constitutive behaviour of concrete under large strains, high strain rate and high pressure. The original HJC model has been modified by introducing the shear cracking, pore crushing, tensile cracking, and hydrostatic expansion damage models to the yield surface for reproducing the crushing, spalling (crater formed at the front surface), scabbing (crater formed at the rear surface), and radial cracking in the concrete target. The Lode-Angle model has been introduced to describe the yield surface to account for the substantial difference in the shear strength between the tensile and compressive meridians. The strain rate effect has been considered to suitably model the dynamic compressive and tensile strengths. Single element simulations have been performed to substantiate the effect of modifications introduced in the constitutive model. The results of the single element simulation obtained by using the proposed model (MHJC_K & I) have been compared with the results of the two latest modified (MHJC_Kong [1] and MHJC_Liu [2]) models available in the literature. The MHJC_K & I model has described more realistic strength softening under uniaxial compression when compared with the experiment results. Further, the MHJC_K & I model has described accurately the magnitude of tensile strength under uniaxial tension in comparison to the other two models. Under hydrostatic tension, the MHJC_K & I model described the exponential strength softening and the MHJC_Kong model described the linear softening while the MHJC_Liu model had limitation in describing the softening behaviour. The ballistic experiments have also been performed on 100 and 60 mm thick plain concrete targets against 0.4 kg steel projectile at incidence velocities in the range 103-220 m/s. The damage induced in the concrete targets as well as the residual projectile velocities have been obtained. The MHJC_K & I model has been found to effectively reproduce the damage with respect to the size and depth of the crater as well as the radial cracking at the front and rear surfaces of the plain concrete target. The MHJC_Kong and MHJC_Liu models underestimated the size and depth of the crater and described limitations in reproducing the radial cracking. The residual velocities obtained by using the proposed model (MHJC_K & I) have been found to have a good agreement with the actual results.

Automated summary

This study proposes a modified HJC model to simulate the behavior of concrete under large strains, high strain rate, and high pressure. The modified model includes various damage models to reproduce the crushing, spalling, scabbing, and radial cracking in concrete. The Lode-Angle model and strain rate effect are also incorporated to account for the difference in shear strength and to accurately model the dynamic strengths. The proposed model (MHJC_K & I) demonstrates better accuracy and performance compared to the existing models.