Improving response the reinforced concrete slabs under Blast loading using (CFRP)

Abstract

    As a result of the increase in terrorist attacks in recent years, and their threat to public facilities, assessing the structural integrity of facilities damaged by explosions has become an interesting topic for researchers. Explosions may lead to partial collapse of buildings and may also cause complete collapse of facilities. Therefore, accurately representing the blast load and its consequences is of great importance. In this research, an analytical study was conducted on the effect of this load on reinforced concrete slabs using the finite element method to model a reinforced concrete slab working in one direction and the loads affecting it, using the program ABAQUS2017, which simulates the blast wave by creating a time record of the wave as a function of the blast distance. The weight of the explosion charge, which is taken as the equivalent weight of TNT.

Then, after modeling and analysis, carbon fiber-reinforced polymer strips (CFRP) were added and the results were compared with ordinary reinforced concrete. It was noted that the response improved when adding carbon strips to the face of the slab exposed to tension, and when adding carbon fiber-reinforced polymer strips to both sides of the studied slab, the response improved further.