An Effective Framework for Performance Evaluation of Reinforced Concrete Beams Under Impact Loadings

Extreme actions, such as impact loads, contain many uncertainties and hence, may not be analyzed by a deterministic approach. In this paper, an effective framework for performance evaluation of reinforced concrete (RC) beams subjected to impact loadings is proposed. For this purpose, a simple yet effective model considering the shear-flexural interaction is developed based on available impact test results. By incorporating the shear effect, both the maximum displacement and impact force are well predicted, by which the proposed model for the impact analysis of RC beams is validated. The joint probability density function (PDF) of two damage indexes, i.e. local drift ratio and overall support rotation, is used to represent the local shear damage degree and the overall flexural damage degree. Taking advantage of the probabilistic framework and the effective model, reliability analysis of the RC beams under different impact scenarios is performed. The damage, described in this study by the joint PDF, is highly affected by the combination of impact mass and velocity. Thus, the mass-velocity (m-v) diagrams for various performance levels are generated for the damage assessment of the RC beams. Furthermore, the contribution of the local and global responses to the failure probability is quantified using the proposed probabilistic framework.