Numerical analysis of small-scale concrete beams strengthened with CFRP under impact loading

Reinforced concrete structures are vulnerable to impact loads (e.g. rock-fall, vehicle collision or ship impact) during their service life. It is of interest to understand the impact load behaviour of reinforced concrete and its potentially catastrophic failure. This paper presents a preliminary study, on small-scale reinforced concrete beams strengthened with carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) under low-velocity impact. This study comprises both experimental work, making use of a drop-weight set-up, and a non-linear finite element model (FEM). The FEM was validated using the results achieved from the experiments. On overall, the simulation yielded promising results in a consistent prediction of the displacement and failure behavior mechanism, though further sensitivity analysis is needed with respect to the modelling of the specimen boundary conditions. In line with observations in literature, the CFRP strengthening of the test specimens demonstrated to be an effective technique to improve the resistance of the reinforced concrete beams under impact load.