Influence of Supports on the Low-Velocity Impact Response of Square RC Slab of Standard Concrete and Ultra-High Performance Concrete: FEM-Based Computational Analysis

Abstract

Structural members with low-flexural stiffness, such as slabs, are more susceptible to impulsive loadings induced by falling machines/tools during construction and installation, and also from rolling boulders/rocks triggered by wind/earthquake, especially in mountainous areas. The impact resistance of reinforced concrete (RC) slabs supported on two opposite edges (often called the one-way slab) and on all four edges (i.e., two-way slab) has been adequately studied experimentally as well as computationally, and is available in the literature. However, the slabs supported on three edges have not been studied under low-velocity impact for their impact response. For this purpose, a computational study is performed through finite elements by implementing ABAQUS software on the validated model, resulting in the slab, which is supported on (i) three edges and (ii) two opposite edges, to be subjected to low-velocity impact, induced by dropping a 105 kg non-deformable steel mass from a height of 2500 mm onto the slab centroid. Furthermore, the role of the material strength of the concrete of the slab is investigated via replacing the ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) for standard or normal-strength concrete (NSC). The impact load is modeled by considering the explicit module of the software. Failure mechanism, stress/strain contour, displacement distribution, and crack pattern of the slabs are compared and discussed.