Damage assessment and prediction of FRP strengthened RC structures subjected to blast and impact loads

[Truncated abstract] Reinforced concrete (RC) structures might subject to severe impulsive loadings due to shock wave, blast wave or direct impact in their service life. The Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) strengthening concepts have been used in many studies to strengthen these RC structures in resisting progressive collapse, structural damage and preventing injuries against dynamic explosive impacts. Its effectiveness in strengthening RC structures to resist blast and impact loads have been proven in both numerical and experimental studies. However, there are limited systematic studies that directly correlate the increase in structural capacities in resisting the blast loads with the strengthening measures, such as the strengthening materials, layers of FRP applied and types of epoxy used. The pressure-impulse (P-I) curves are often used to quantify structural performance under various blast loading scenarios. By developing P-I curve for FRP strengthened structures, the quantitative correlation between minimum peak pressure and impulse required to reaching a particular level of damage of FRP strengthened and unstrengthened columns can be plotted. In this research, the assessment on the failure modes and dynamic response of structures with FRP strengthening under different condition of impact and blast loading are determined. To achieve this two experimental programs (Chapter 2 and 3) and a series of numerical analyses (Chapter 4-7) are carried out. The experimental programs determine the effects of different types of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) strengthening approaches on the dynamic response of RC structural elements under impact loads. The first experimental program involves of static and impact loading on the CFRP strengthened RC beams.