Use of Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete for the Protection of Buildings Against High Dynamic Actions

Abstract

Nowadays ensuring the safety of people and the protection of infrastructure is a socially relevant topic, which requires a thorough investigation. The Institute of concrete construction at the University of the German Armed Forces in Munich is investigating the possibilities of using steel fiber concrete for the protection of military facilities and state-owned special buildings in Germany. In this research project steel fiber reinforced concrete is investigated under high dynamic loads specifically under contact detonation loading. Plates with varying reinforcement systems, different thicknesses, different fiber geometries, fiber contents and fiber types were produced.The following concrete compressive strengths C20/25, C40/50, C80/95 were used in this research project.The plates were loaded with 500 g, 750 g, 1000 g, 1500 g and 2000 g PETN explosive at the test facility of the German Armed Forces Technical centre for Protective and Special Technologies. An important property of construction material during ballistic threats and contact detonation is the concrete tensile strength. Through the addition of fibers, the post cracking behavior and the ductility of concrete components can be improved. All fiber-reinforced specimens showed less damage than the non-fiber reinforced elements. The aim of the study is to optimize the concrete mixture for the fiber concrete protection components considering the following factors: concrete quality, fiber content, fiber geometry, as well as aggregate size of the concrete. Another aim is to record and evaluate the damage parameters of the steel fiber reinforced concrete slabs after the highly dynamic load, and to investigate to offer suggestion for retrofitting. In this article, the test results of different steel framed concretes under highly dynamic conditions are presented.

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