Blast mitigation of reinforced concrete hollow core slabs using CFRP as externally bonded reinforcement

One of today's state-of-the-art techniques for strengthening of reinforced concrete structural elements is the use of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite strips as externally bonded reinforcement (EBR). This is justified for quasi-static loads by the high strength, light weight and excellent durability characteristics of CFRP EBR in combination with their ease of application. The present paper deals with the performance of the technique for blast loads. This paper investigates the usefulness of CFRP EBR to improve the flexural resistance capacity of reinforced concrete hollow core slabs (RCHCS) under blast loads. In order to achieve this objective, three simply supported RCHCS with a compression layer, were subjected to an explosion test. The obtained experimental results of the RCHCS without and with EBR are presented and discussed with the aim of evaluating the influence of EBR on the blast response of the RCHCS. A numerical analysis is also carried out using the finite element software LS-DYNA to complement the experimental results.