Numerical Study of Precast Concrete Beam Under Impact Loads

Precast concrete (PC) structure has been increasingly used in construction industry. PC parts are assembled together by using various connection techniques to keep the integrity of the structures. The wet connection is one of the most popular connection techniques for PC beams. The PC beams with wet connections might suffer impact loads due to falling debris in their lifecycle, which could cause the damage or collapse of structures. However, the investigation of the impact performance of PC beams is very limited. In this paper, the PC beams are studied by using the three-dimensional numerical models developed in LS-DYNA. The developed numerical model of PC beam under drop-weight impact is calibrated with the existing testing data from other researchers. In addition, parametric study is conducted to investigate the influence of various parameters on the dynamic performance of PC beams under drop-weight impact. The considered parameters include impact mass, impact velocity and concrete strength. The generated impact force, maximum and residual displacements at mid-span are examined and compared.