Dynamic response of precast concrete beam with wet connection subjected to impact loads

Precast concrete (PC) structures are increasingly employed in recent years due to their advantages in better construction quality control and saving construction time. Most of the existing researches have been carried out to study the seismic performance of PC structures. The investigation of PC beams with wet connection under impact loads is, however, very limited in open literature. In this paper, numerical studies are conducted to investigate the dynamic behavior of PC beams with wet connections subjected to impact loads by LS-DYNA. The numerical models are calibrated with the experimental results from other researchers. With the calibrated numerical model, the dynamic performance of PC beams is compared with that of monolithic RC beams. It is found that the impact forces on PC and RC beams are similar due to the identical contact stiffness at the impact location. However, the interfaces between PC components and cast-in-place concrete (CIPC) components as well as grout sleeves used to connect longitudinal rebars cause uneven stiffness distributions of PC beams, hence resulting in different failure modes of PC and RC beams. Parametric studies are conducted to investigate the effects of three parameters, i.e., impact energy with respect to impact mass and velocity, inclination angle of the drop weight, and concrete strength on the dynamic response of PC beams subjected to impact loads. The results obtained in this research shine some lights on the impact performances of PC beams.