Issue |
EPJ Web of Conferences
Volume 94, 2015
DYMAT 2015 - 11th International Conference on the Mechanical and Physical Behaviour of Materials under Dynamic Loading
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Article Number | 01010 | |
Number of page(s) | 6 | |
Section | Experimental Techniques | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/20159401010 | |
Published online | 07 September 2015 |
https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/20159401010
Assessment of dynamic mechanical behaviour of reinforced concrete beams using a blast simulator
European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen (IPSC), European Laboratory for Structural Assessment (ELSA), via E. Fermi 2749, 21027 Ispra (VA), Italy
a Corresponding author: marco.peroni@jrc.ec.europa.eu
Published online: 7 September 2015
Critical infrastructures may become the target of terrorist bombing attacks or may have to withstand explosive loads due to accidents. The impulsive load connected to explosions is delivered to the structure in a few milliseconds forcing it to respond or fail in a peculiar mode. With reference to the above scientific framework this work presents an innovative apparatus designed and developed at the European Laboratory for Structural Assessment to reproduce a blast pressure history without using explosives. This apparatus is practically a hybrid nitrogen-spring-driven actuator that accelerates masses of up to 100 kg to a maximum velocity of about 25 m/s that impact against the tested structure. The pressure-load history applied to the structure is modulated and reshaped using appropriate layers of elastic soft materials (such as polymeric foams) placed between the specimen and the impacting masses. Specific instrumentation has extensively been utilised to investigate the blast simulator performance and to precisely measure the pressure loads applied to the specimen. A series of tests on real scale reinforced concrete beams/columns (250 × 250 × 2200 mm) has been performed to efficiently assess the performance and potentiality of the new blast simulator. Results are under evaluation. In addition to the experimental work, a series of numerical simulations by means of the explicit FEM code EUROPLEXUS have been carried out to support and improve the equipment design.
© Owned by the authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2015
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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