The ballistic evaluation of plain, reinforced and reinforced–prestressed concrete

The ballistic experiments have been performed on plain, reinforced and reinforced–prestressed concrete plates of unconfined compressive strength 48MPa against ogival nosed steel projectiles of mass 0.4 kg and diameter 19 mm at incidence velocities close to ballistic limit. The reinforced concrete targets had two different configurations of reinforcement; first configuration had 0.5% reinforcement in both the orthogonal directions and the second configuration had different percentage of reinforcement (0.5% and 0.8%) in the two orthogonal directions. The prestressing force of 4 MPa was induced in the concrete through pre-tensioning method using 4 mm diameter wires at 40 mm c/c spacing. The reinforcement in the prestressed concrete was provided as 0.5% in one orthogonal direction and 0.8% in the other one. The volume of scabbing and spalling of concrete in the perforated concrete plates was obtained by measurement and calculation using the concept of an equivalent crater. The volume of scabbing has also reduced due to introduction of prestress in the concrete. The penetration depth and perforation limit in the non-perforated reinforced concrete plates were calculated using the ACE expression. The ACE expression was also modified for obtaining the penetration depth in the non-perforated reinforced–prestressed concrete plates and a close correlation between the calculation and the measurement was noticed. The prestressing force is seen to have enhanced the penetration resistance of concrete. The ballistic limit of the reinforced–prestressed concrete plate was 6.6, 8.9 and 22.7% higher than the second configuration reinforced, first configuration reinforced and plain concrete plate, respectively. •Ballistic response of reinforced and prestressed concrete of two different reinforcement ratio.•ACE expression was modified for obtaining penetration depth in non-perforated concrete.•An equivalent crater concept was proposed to obtain volume of scabbing and spalling.•Prestress wires as passive reinforcement in reinforced concrete had no effect on ballistic limit.•Induced prestress in the concrete significantly enhanced the ballistic resistance.