Research on Impact Resistance of Reinforced Concrete Beams Strengthened with Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer Grid and Engineered Cementitious Composites

When reinforced concrete structures are subjected to impact loads, they may suddenly yield or fail, or even collapse as a whole. In this paper, the impact resistance of reinforced concrete (RC) beams strengthened with carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) grid and engineered cementitious composites (ECC) was studied. Drop hammer impact tests were conducted on eight beams, then the finite element model was used to simulate the impact test, finally a simplified two-degree-of-freedom (TDOF) model was proposed for CFRP grid reinforced ECC layer strengthened RC beams under impact loading. The results showed that CFRP grid reinforced ECC layer significantly improved the impact resistance of RC beams. When the ECC and CFRP grid were used, the crack development was inhibited after the concrete cracked in the tensile area, avoiding the brittle damage of concrete beams with one crack to the end. Compared with the control beam, the reaction force of RC beams strengthened with CFRP grid and ECC under impact load increased by 16.2 similar to 34.5%, the maximum mid-span displacement decreased by 16.3 similar to 31.6% and the mid-span residual displacement decreased by 36.02 similar to 49.53%. The finite element model and the proposed TDOF mode were demonstrated to effectively simulate the strengthened beam under impact loading.