The Resistance of Fiber-reinforced Concrete with Steel Fibers and CFRP to Drop-weight Impact

Abstract

In this paper, the effects of macro-synthetic steel fibers and bidirectional carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (CFRPs) on the impact resistance of concrete specimens were studied. 54 concrete cylindrical specimens with different compressive strengths (20, 30, and 40 MPa) and with different fiber content ratios (0 %, 1 %, 1.5 %, and 2 %) were tested under impact loading. Half of these specimens were tested with the CFRP wrapping. The specimens were subjected to weight (46.7 and 66.8 kg) dropping at a height of 1.62 m. The process of weight dropping was continued until 30 % weight loss in the specimens was observed and the number of weight droppings related to this loss was recorded. Results indicated that the impact resistance of the concrete specimens (corresponding to the number of weight droppings) increased by using steel fibers or CFRP wrapping, separately. However, the results demonstrated that the specimens wrapped with the CFRP sheets had much further impact resistance than the FRCs without wrapping. Finally, the results showed that the greater the compressive strengths of the concrete, the better the impact resistance.