Strengthening of RC Beams with CFC Panels for Improving Impact Resistance

Abstract

In this study, continuous fiber composite (CFC) panels were used as a strengthening material to improve the impact resistance of reinforced concrete (RC). Both experimental tests and numerical analyses were carried out to investigate the impact resistance of RC beams strengthened with CFC panels. The experiments involved repeated drop-weight impact tests at constant speed. The experimental results confirm that the strengthening of RC beams with CFC panels improves the impact resistance, thereby increasing the number of repeated impacts that can be allowed before a specified residual displacement is reached. In addition, a virtual particle model based on the conventional smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method, which takes into account the mechanical properties of the adhesive, was introduced as an analytical method to simulate the impact fracture behavior of RC beams strengthened with CFC panels. The analysis results show that the improved SPH method proposed in this study can accurately reproduce the impact behavior of RC beams strengthened with CFC panels and predict the allowable number of repeated impacts. Furthermore, a parametric study was carried out using a validated analytical approach to compare the load-bearing capacity and discuss the impact performance of RC beams with three types of CFC panel reinforcement.