Numerical and experimental study of concrete structures exposed to impact and fire

Abstract

During their service life concrete and reinforced concrete structures may be exposed to extreme loading conditions such as fire, explosions, impact, earthquakes and terroristic attacks. In particular situations, as in case of chemical industries where the probabilities of explosions are relatively high, combination of extreme loadings represents a major risk. To assure safety conditions in terms of cost and lives losses for the involved structure as well as for the surrounding buildings, it is important to take into account the effect of multi-hazard phenomena. The aim of this work is to study the dynamic concrete behaviour after thermal exposure analyzing the change of the material state and structural response, by means of experimental tests and numerical analysis. In the literature, few studies can be found on the behaviour of concrete and RC structures subjected to coupled thermal and dynamic loads. The results of the study are also useful to extend the experimental and numerical database available in the literature. Experimental and numerical investigations on fire exposed plain concrete (compact tension specimen) and full scale reinforced concrete structures (slabs and frames) under high loading rates are presented and discussed.