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To cite this article: Jun Li, Chengqing Wu, Hong Hao, Yu Su & Zhongxian Liu (2016) Blast
resistance of concrete slab reinforced with high performance fibre material, Journal of Structural
Integrity and Maintenance, 1:2, 51-59
Blast resistance of concrete slab reinforced with high performance fibre material
Jun Lia, Chengqing Wua, Hong Haob, Yu Sua and Zhongxian Liuc
a
Centre for Built Infrastructure Research, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia;
b
Department of Civil Engineering, Curtin University, Perth, Australia; cTianjin Key Laboratory of Civil Structure Protection and Reinforcement, Tianjin
Chengjian University, Tianjin, China
ABSTRACT KEYWORDS
Concrete is now the most abundantly used material in construction. Despite good compressive strength, Blast test; concrete slab; fibre
concrete is marked with brittleness and low tensile strength. A widely adopted method to enhance the reinforcement; UHMWPE
concrete material performance especially the tensile strength and ductility is fibrous material addition. fibre; steel fibre
In the present study, concrete mix designs with different fibre additions have been developed, and
high-performance polyethylene fibre and micro steel fibre are considered with varying volume fractions
in the concrete matrix. Material static properties are obtained from laboratory tests, and further study
on the dynamic performance of theses fibre reinforced concrete materials is investigated through field
blast tests. Concrete slabs with high-performance polyethylene fibre reinforcement and hybrid steel
and polyethylene reinforcement are casted and tested under close-in blast scenarios. Discussion on the
structural damage and material performance is briefed based on the test results.
materials, those used for ballistic applications are typically car- Takeda, and Mitsui (2011) investigated polyethylene fibre-re-
bon fibre, Kevlar® (aramid fibre) and more recently, the Ultra inforced concrete slab under contact detonations, and they
high-molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) fibre. Different observed the improved spall and cratering resistance on the
to the conventional polyethylene fibre, low specific weight slab with fibre reinforcement. However, the polyethylene fibre
UHMWPE fibres possess extraordinary mechanical properties material they used is high-molecular weight-polyethylene fibre
such as high modulus, high strength, high impact resistance, not UHMWPE. Until now, in open literature, no information was
high cut and abrasion tolerance. In the late 1970s, UHMWPE found on the blast resistance of UHMWPE-reinforced concrete.
fibres were commercialized by DSM Dyneema, NL under the In the present study, UHMWPE fibre material is mixed into
trade name Dyneema® and more recently by Honeywell in the high strength concrete matrix, and static uniaxial compressive
USA under the name Spectra®. tests and third point flexural bending tests are carried out to
Since the day of invention, one of major interests in the achieve the static mechanical properties of the reinforced con-
application of UHMWPE fibre is in defence protection, and crete material. As a comparison, plain concrete and hybrid steel
this material is found to be extensively used in the armour fibre-UHMWPE fibre-reinforced concrete are also investigated.
protection industry and research has focused on the ballistic Field blast tests are carried out to investigate the blast resistance
performance of UHMWPE composites. Xu and Farris (2007) of concrete slabs made of above materials.
developed matrix free UHMWPE fibre-reinforced composite,
and ballistic tests were carried out to investigate the compos-
2. Experiment method
ite under projectiles impact with different velocities. Test results
reveal that UHMWPE composites performed better than Kelvar®. 2.1. Materials and mix proportions
Karthikeyan et al. (2013) measured quasi-static and dynamic
Table 1 shows the concrete material compositions in the current
responses of laminated beams made from monolithic carbon
study. Coarse aggregates in conventional concrete design are
fibre-reinforced polymer (CFRP) and UHMWPE. They observed
replaced by ultra-fine silica fume. Silica fume can provide high
that under quasi-static tests, UHMWPE beams had larger load
pozzonalic effect that promotes the concrete strength growth,
carrying capacity than CFRP beam, and similar observation was
especially at the early age. Silica fume with small size (less than
made under low velocity impacts. Karthikeyan, Russell, Fleck,
1 μm) can also fill the voids to generate low porosity concrete
Wadley, and Deshpande (2013) also investigated the ballistic
matrix.
response of laminated composite plates made of 304 stainless
It is worth noting that in the present study, nano particles
steel, CFRP and UHMWPE. They found that on an equal areal
nano-CaCO3 are added into the concrete matrix at a constant
mass basis, the UHMWPE plates had the highest ballistic limit.
volume fraction. These particles can provide nanoscale filling
Mohagheghian, McShane, and Stronge (2015) experimen-
effect, and previous study revealed that inclusion of nano size
tally studied the perforation of UHMWPE plate and the results
particles into the concrete matrix favours its mechanical per-
were compared with those with low-density polyethylene and
formance (Su, Li, Wu, Wu, & Li, 2016). Liu, Chen, Liu, and Wang
high-density polyethylene, and they noted UHMWPE plates
(2012) added nano-CaCO3 into the cement paste and the exper-
showed better perforation resistance under both quasi-static
imental results showed that with the increase of nano-CaCO3
indentation and impact loading, and they ascribed such per-
content, the flowability decreased and the setting time of fresh
formance to UHMWPE’s high strain hardening which delays
cement paste was shortened. Flexural strength and compres-
the onset of localization. Russell, Karthikeyan, Deshpande, and
sive strength increased with the addition of nano-CaCO3 at the
Fleck (2013) developed test protocols for the tensile testing of
age of 7 and 28 days.
laminates, yarns and fibres made from UHMWPE, and had elu-
To compensate the loss in flowability after introducing the
cidated the relationship between the tensile properties of the
nano particles and fibre material, water reducer was used. For
laminate, yarn and fibre for Dyneema® SK76 over a wide range
comparative purpose, plain concrete with the same material
of strain rate.
composition but without fibre material addition is employed.
Despite many research on the UHMWPE laminate under
Two different fibre materials, that is, steel fibre and UHMWPE
static and dynamic loads, little work can be found in the open
fibre are used in the current design. Material properties of these
literature concerning the UHMWPE fibre mixed with concrete
two fibres are listed in Table 2. From the hybrid fibre reinforce-
matrix. As reported by Xu and Farris (2007), because of chem-
ment design, it is anticipated that the stronger and stiffer steel
ical inertness and a lack of functional groups, UHMWPE fibres
fibre improves the ultimate strength, while the more flexible
are difficult to bond to most materials, which makes it diffi-
cult to produce UHMWPE FRP matrix composites. Several fibre
pre-treatments exist and they are proven to improve the bond- Table 1. Material compositions for fibre reinforced concrete (kg/m3).
ing strength of UHMWPE fibres to matrix, however after treat- UHMWPE fibre Hybrid UHMWPE-steel
ment, fibre properties generally deteriorate. Among the quite Composition concrete fibre concrete
few researches, Zhang et al. carried out experimental (Zhang, P.O 52.5 cement 1155.60 1155.60
Yan, Zhu, Zhang, & Li, 2014) and numerical (Zhang, Yan, & Li, Silica fume 437.50 437.50
Nano CaCO3 57.80 57.80
2014) investigation on the projectile penetration into UHMWPE Microbead 111.50 111.50
fibre-reinforced concrete, and their results showed UHMWPE Silicon powder 500 110.30 110.30
fibre is of excellent effects to improve the tension strength and Silicon powder 325 68.20 68.20
Fine sand 334.50 334.50
toughness of concrete, and penetration depth and cratering Medium sand 278.80 278.80
area under bullet penetration are decreased significantly com- Coarse sand 211.90 211.90
pared with plain concrete. Ranade, Heard, and Williams (2016) Water reducer 55.47 55.47
Water 294.67 294.67
studied multiscale mechanical performance of high strength- Fibre 24.30 UHMWPE fibre 14.6 UHMWPE fibre
high ductility concrete, and in their experiment, UHMWPE was 76.4 Steel fibre
used to reinforce the concrete material. Yamaguchi, Murakami, Anti-freeze fluid 16.50 16.50
Journal of Structural Integrity and Maintenance 53
(a) Uniaxial compressive test reuslts (b) Third-point bending test results
Figure 1. (Colour online) Static test results on concrete with and without UHMWPE fibre reinforcement.
(a) Plain concrete (b) UHMWPE concrete (c) hybrid fibre concrete
20 mm
enhances the material strength and tensile capacity which is Blast resistances of these slabs under close-in detonations are
favourable for the next stage blast resistance design. observed and compared with each other.
Concrete samples after uniaxial compression tests are shown For mono UHMWPE fibre-reinforced concrete slabs, two blast
in Figure 3, where plain concrete failure is in a progressive brittle events are considered. A 6 kg TNT explosive is used in the first
mode while the fibre reinforced samples showed ductile failure, event on UHMWPE-1 slab in which an elastic slab deformation is
and bridging effect from fibre material can be clearly observed. expected. The data acquisition system is composed of pressure
After initiation of crack, fibre material bridges over cracks and transducer and LVDT. As shown in Figure 5, two pressure sensors
retards crack propagation which helps improve the material (PT1 and PT2) with 1 MHz sampling rate are installed on the slab
ductility and strength. proximal surface to record the blast pressure, PT1 is installed on
the slab centre and PT2 is installed close to the free edge. A LVDT
3. Blast testing program with effective stroke distance of 300 mm (+150 to −150 mm)
is installed beneath the slab on the distal surface to record the
3.1. Slab preparation slab mid-span deflection history. In the second event, a 12 kg
In the present test matrix, all slabs were built with the same TNT explosive is used on UHMWPE-2 slab. To avoid possible
size. As depicted in Figure 4, the dimensions of the slabs are: damage, no pressure sensor is installed.
2000 mm long, 800 mm wide and 120 mm thick. The diameter For hybrid fibre-reinforced slabs, the same blast loading sce-
of the longitudinal reinforcing rebar and stirrup rebar is 12 and narios are considered. A 6 kg TNT at 1.5 m standoff distance is
10 mm, respectively. The longitudinal and stirrup spacing is 95 employed for Hybrid-1 slab while 12 kg TNT at 1.5 m standoff
and 196 mm, respectively. The yielding strength for the longi- distance is used for Hybrid-2 slab. Only LVDT is installed on these
tudinal and stirrup rebar is 270 MPa. two slabs for deflection measurement.
The material properties and static performance of both For comparison purpose, slab made of plain concrete is tested
the mono UHMWPE fibre-reinforced concrete and the hybrid under 8 kg TNT detonation at 1.5 m above the slab centre. Slab
fibre-reinforced concrete material are obtained from the above failure is anticipated for plain concrete slab under this loading
static experiments. Improved compressive and tensile prop- scenario. It is worth noting that despite the inclusion of plain con-
erties as well as energy absorption capability are noted from crete slab cannot provide quantitative comparison with fibre-re-
the fibre addition. In the following study, field blast tests on inforced slabs, its performance can qualitatively demonstrate the
mono UHMWPE fibre-reinforced concrete slabs and hybrid effectiveness of the fibre-reinforced concrete against blast load.
steel-UHMWPE fibre-reinforced concrete slabs are carried out. Test matrix in the current study is summarized in Table 3.
Journal of Structural Integrity and Maintenance 55
PT2
PT1
LVDT
Figure 5. (Colour online) Pressure sensor installation on the UHMWPE-1 slab under 6 kg TNT at 1.5 m standoff distance.
TNT
1.5 m
LVDT
Steel cleats
3.2. Testing setup 1 g TNT per detonator. Comparing with the explosive charge
weights used in the current tests, the effects from the detonator
Test-setup is shown in Figure 6. In the present test study, the
are deemed not prominent and can be neglected.
slab is placed on a precast steel frame with a height of 600 mm
The charge shape and orientation play important roles in
above the ground. The slab is clamped at its both ends with steel
the blast peak pressure and impulse (Wu, Fattori, Whittaker,
cleats and bolts. This set-up is an idealized fix end boundary
& Oehlers, 2010; Wu, Oehlers, Rebentrost, Leach, & Whittaker,
which prevents slab from rebounding under severe blast loads.
2009). In the present set-up, the detonator is positioned at the
It is also worth noting that, due to the distance between the slab
top of the cylinder causing the blast to propagate along the
and ground is not sufficiently large, blast pressure that reflects
axis of the cylinder, focussing the pressure of the charge to
from the ground may generate negative bending moment
the centre of the slab. Also, the geometry of the charge may
on the slab. It is believed that such blast reflection may help
cause a concentration of blast energy to emanate from the end
increase the slab blast-resistance performance; however, this
of the charge. In the previous tests concerning the shape and
part is beyond the scope of current study and therefore not
orientation of the explosive (Ciccarelli, Henderson, Jordans, &
discussed herein.
Noack, 2008), it was found that for the cylindrical charge with
It is worth noting that in the present study, cylindrical TNT
the axis oriented vertically it can be seen that the reflected pres-
explosive is used in the tests with its axis perpendicular to the
sure was highly directional, and the peak pressure was approx-
slab surface (see Figure 7), and detonator is used to electrically
imately 200% larger than the theoretical value given by UFC
activate the explosive. The explosive in the detonator is hexo-
3-340-02 (DoD, 2008), and then drops below the theoretical
gen (RDX) with TNT equivalence ratio of 1.58. One detonator
value at the edges of the slab.
contains .4–.6 g RDX with NEQ (net explosive quantity) less than
56 J. Li et al.
Figure 10. (Colour online) UHMWPE-2 fibre reinforced concrete slab after 12 kg TNT detonation from 1.5 m standoff distance.
Journal of Structural Integrity and Maintenance 57
addition. Due to the LVDT system malfunction, no data were enhancement, while UHMWPE fibre helps more with the mate-
collected for slab mid-span deflection. rial ductility.
For Hybrid-2 slab which was loaded with the same blast as A close investigation on the mid-span cracks on UHMWPE-2
UHMWPE-2 slab, similar flexural failure was observed with a fibre reinforced slab and Hybrid-2 fibre-reinforced slab is
major crack located on the slab mid-span as shown in Figure shown in Figure 15. It is noted that Hybrid-2 slab develops
13. The crack depth was about 70 mm which was smaller than multicracks along the slab depth. During the crack opening,
UHMWPE-2 slab. According to LVDT measurement, the max- steel fibres with higher tensile strength effectively bridge
imum slab deflection was about 72 mm as shown in Figure over the major cracks; the elongation and pull-out of the steel
14. The slab permanent deflection was manually measured as fibre transfer stress into the surrounding concrete matrix and
34 mm. Both the maximum deflection and permanent deflec- develop more refined cracks, and these microcracks can be
tion of Hybrid-2 slab are smaller than UHMWPE-2 slab. Such further confined by both steel fibre and UHMWPE fibres. For
improvement can be ascribed to the combination of both mono UHMWPE fibre-reinforced slab UHMWPE-2, due to the
fibre materials, steel fibre contributes more to the strength lower fibre strength and modulus, and also the weaker bonding
between UHMWPE fibre and concrete matrix (Xu & Farris, 2007),
the bridge effect is less prominent than hybrid fibre reinforced
concrete slab.
Figure 16 shows the plain concrete slab after 8 kg TNT
detonation at 1.5 m above the slab centre, and the slab fails
completely with a permanent deflection of 190 mm which
is manually measured after the test. Although some shear
cracks can be observed, the failure of the plain slab is pre-
dominantly flexure with a major crack in the slab mid-span.
After the blast load impinged upon the slab, tensile crack was
initiated on the slab distal surface. With the increase of the
slab deflection, longitudinal reinforcement started yielding
and the slab failed after concrete crush on the slab proxi-
mal surface. In addition, some side concrete spallation can
be observed on the slab free edge, and this kind of failure
Figure 11. Deflection time history of UHMWPE slab under 12 kg TNT at 1.5 m. is induced by stress wave propagation. It is clearly seen that
Figure 12. (Colour online) Hybrid-1 fibre reinforced concrete slab after 6 kg TNT
detonation from 1.5 m standoff distance. Figure 14. Deflection time history of Hybrid-2 slab under 12 kg TNT at 1.5 m.
Figure 13. (Colour online) Hybrid-2 fibre reinforced concrete slab after 12 kg TNT detonation from 1.5 m standoff distance.
58 J. Li et al.
Multiple cracks
Single crack
Figure 15. (Colour online) Crack development on UHMWPE-2 slab and Hybrid-2 slab.
Shear crack
Yielding of longitudinal reinforcement
Figure 16. (Colour online) Plain concrete slab after 8 kg TNT detonation from 1.5 m standoff distance.
plain concrete is less blast resistant than fibre reinforced con- Disclosure statement
crete discussed earlier. No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
5. Conclusion Funding
In this paper, an experimental study on the high-performance This work was supported by the ARC Discovery [grant number DP160104661];
fibre reinforced concrete is carried out. UHMWPE fibre material National Basic Research Programme [grant number 2015CB058002].
is featured with low density but equipped with high material
tensile strength and modulus. Previous study reveals UHMWPE
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