Evaluation of Residual Lateral Capacities of Impact-Damaged Reinforced Concrete Members

To study the residual lateral capacity of reinforced concrete (RC) columns after being subjected to static and horizontal impact action, static and horizontal impact tests of a total of sixteen RC columns were conducted. The variables considered in the tests included the shear-span ratio, the impact weight and the velocity. The experimental results, including the impact force, the deflection and the strain, as well as the cracking pattern and the failure mode, were discussed. Compared with the load–deflection curves under static and impact loading, it can be found that the inertial effect plays a significant part in the dynamic behaviour of the RC columns. Subsequently, static tests of six specimens with slight impact damage were carried out to obtain their residual performance. Based on the Park–Ang damage model that is widely used for assessing the post-seismic performance of RC members, an evaluation method for the structural residual capacity of RC columns after being subjected to impact loading was developed, with its accuracy confirmed by the experimental results.

This creative work has been published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY 4.0) license which allows copying, and redistribution as well as adaptation of the original work provided appropriate credit is given to the original author and the conditions of the license are met.