High strain rate behaviour in tension of steel B500A reinforcing bar

In reinforced concrete structures under severe dynamic loading, as impact and blast, both concrete and reinforcing bars are subjected to high strain-rates. While the dynamic tensile behaviour of concrete is the subject of many researches, the behaviour of the reinforcing steel under high strain rate has been not completely considered yet. Such behaviour is of capital importance in the structural assessment under the abovementioned loading conditions. This is the reason why an experimental program on rebar, stirrup and wire steels under high strain rate in tension is running at the DynaMat Laboratory. In this study the effect of high strain rate on the mechanical properties of B500A steel reinforcing bars in tension has been analysed. The steel of three different bars having diameter of 6, 8 and 10 mm have been investigated. The experiments have been carried out by means of a Split Hopkinson Tensile Bar at 250, 500 and 1000 s(-1). Finally the parameters of the well-known Johnson-Cook and Cowper-Symonds materials models have been obtained.