Estimation of impact characteristics of RC slabs under sudden loading

Reinforced concrete (RC) slabs are exposed to several static and dynamic effects during their period of service. Accordingly, there are many studies focused on the behavior of RC slabs under these effects in the literature. However, impact loading which can be more effective than other loads is not considered in the design phase of RC slabs. This study aims to investigate the dynamic behavior of two-way RC slabs under sudden impact loading. For this purpose, 3 different simply supported slab specimens are manufactured. These specimens are tested under impact loading by using the drop test setup and necessary measurement devices such as accelerometers, dynamic load cell, LVDT and data-logger. Mass and drop height of the hammer are taken constant during experimental study. It is seen that rigidity of the specimens effect experimental results. While acceleration values increase, displacement values decrease as the sizes of the specimens have bigger values. In the numerical part of the study, artificial neural networks (ANN) analysis is utilized. ANN analysis is used to model different physical dynamic processes depending upon the experimental variables. Maximum acceleration and displacement values are predicted by ANN analysis. Experimental and numerical values are compared and it is found out that proposed ANN model has yielded consistent results in the estimation of experimental values of the test specimens.

Automated summary

The study investigates the dynamic behavior of two-way RC slabs under sudden impact loading, with results showing that the rigidity of the specimens affects the experimental results, as acceleration values increase and displacement values decrease with larger specimen sizes. Artificial neural network (ANN) analysis is used to predict maximum acceleration and displacement values, yielding consistent results compared to experimental values.