The behaviour of reactive powder concrete at high strain rates

Abstract

Concrete is sensitive to the rate of loading. Various dynamic loadings on concrete structures, such as caused by earthquakes, impacts or explosions, produce strain rates that vary by many orders of magnitude. Understanding the dynamic behaviour of concrete under various conditions is very important to its use in civilian and military engineering. Accordingly, in this investigation, the dynamic mechanical properties of ultra-high-strength steel fibre-reinforced concrete were experimentally investigated using a split-Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB). The specimens were made with various steel fibre volume fractions and the strain rate ranged from 10¹/s to 10³/s. Experimental results indicate that the dynamic compressive strength of reactive powder concrete increases moderately with the strain rate. The various characteristics of energy absorption are compared.