ANALYTICAL STUDIES ON LOCAL DAMAGE TO REINFORCED-CONCRETE STRUCTURES UNDER IMPACT LOADING BY DISCRETE ELEMENT METHOD

This paper proposes a new analytical approach for assessing local dama ge to reinforced concrete structures subjected to impact load, by appl ying the discrete element method (DEM). It first outlines the basis co ncept and analytical formulation of the DEM. Next, it discusses the re sults of simulation analyses of concrete material tests, uni-axial com pression tests and tensile splitting tests conducted to determine appr opriate analytical parameters such as material constants, failure crit eria and strength increase factors depending on strain rate. Finally, the adaptability of the DEM to local damage to reinforced concrete str uctures impacted by rigid and deformable missiles is verified through simulation analyses of various types of impact tests. Furthermore, the various impact response characteristics and failure mechanisms, such as impact forces, penetration behavior, reduction in missile velocity and energy transfer process, which an difficult to obtain experimental ly, are analytically evaluated by the DEM. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S .A. All rights reserved.