Experimental and numerical studies on dynamic behavior of reinforced UHPC panel under medium-range explosions

This paper aims to study the blast-resistant behavior of one-way simply-supported reinforced ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) panels through field tests and numerical simulations. Firstly, by designing a box-like blast loading apparatus, both three reinforced UHPC panels and three reinforced normal strength concrete (NSC) control panels were fabricated and tested under medium-range explosions from end-detonated cylindrical charges with different scaled distances (0.5 similar to 1.0 m/kg(1/3)). The valuable data including the explosion-induced incident and reflected overpressure-time histories, deflection- and acceleration-time histories, as well as the post-blast damage of panels were obtained and assessed experimentally. The superiority of UHPC as a blast-resistant material was proved quantitatively by comparison with NSC. Then, the corresponding 3D finite element (FE) model was established by adopting the program LS-DYNA, both the blast loadings induced by the medium-range explosions and the constitutive model parameters of UHPC were mainly concerned. The applicability of the CONWEP method in predicting the blast overpressures was verified, but the prediction precision declines with the decrease of scaled distance since the influences of charge shape and detonation point enhanced accordingly. Moreover, based on the systematic static and dynamic mechanical tests data, the parameters of Karagozian & Case concrete (KCC) model describing the strength surface, equation of state (EOS), damage evolution, and strain rate effect of UHPC were calibrated. Finally, the present FE model, numerical algorithm and the calibrated model parameters were fully verified by comparing the numerical results with the test data, which could provide reference for the evaluation and design of UHPC structures under blast loadings.

Automated summary

This study investigates the blast-resistant behavior of one-way simply-supported reinforced ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) panels through field tests and numerical simulations. The superiority of UHPC as a blast-resistant material was quantitatively proved, and model parameters were calibrated for evaluation and design of UHPC structures under blast loadings. The study provides valuable data and insights for the development of blast-resistant structures using UHPC.