Effect of CFRP strengthening on the response of RC slabs to hard projectile impact

Abstract In this paper impact response of CFRP-strengthened RC panels under the impact of non-deformable projectiles has been presented. The control and CFRP-strengthened RC slab panels were tested under the strike of hemispherical nosed steel projectiles at varying impact velocities. The response of these panels was investigated experimentally as well as numerically. The damage of the slab panels was measured in terms of the penetration depth, formation of cracks, spalling and scabbing areas and fracture of CFRP sheet. This study presents a practical and efficient numerical method for analyzing the impact response of CFRP-strengthened RC structures using LS-DYNA. The CFRP strengthening was found to increase the ballistic limit velocity by 18%, perforation energy of RC slabs by 56.7%, reduce the front crater damage and contains the flying of concrete fragments from the rear face. The maximum impact force occurs at almost same penetration depth for the control and CFRP-strengthened slabs but the restraint provided by CFRP increased the penetration depth by about 1/19.3 of the thickness of slab.