Behaviour of reinforcement in drop tower beam tests

Drop tower tests help to gain understanding about the general behaviour of reinforced concrete members under impact loading and to analyse strains and strain rates occurring within their reinforcement. For this purpose, beam and slab specimens are usually employed. The main advantage of beams compared to slabs is that they are less complex due to the almost two-dimensional instead of three-dimensional wave propagation within them. To investigate the steel strains and strain rates, ten impact tests on beam specimens with various impact energies were performed. The impactor sizes and velocities were varied. The reinforcement bars of the beams were instrumented with semiconductor strain gauges. The measured data suggest that the occurring strains in beam tests are independent of the loading velocity. The same was found for the strain rates. The reason is that higher impact energies mostly influence the concrete damage due to spalling on the impact-facing side which happens after the maximum strains occurred. The strains in the reinforcement bars generally result from the overall deflection because of the impact, the spreading of longitudinal waves in the horizontal direction, and the localized cracking of the concrete due to the formation of a punching cone.