Failure analysis of reinforced concrete slab under impact loading using a novel numerical method

Failure analyses of reinforced concrete slabs under impact loading are essential to evaluate the impact resistance of structures accurately; further, these analyses help reasonably design and construct engineering structures. In this paper, we propose a novel three-dimensional (3D) coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian method to simulate projectile penetration into the reinforced concrete slab. In this method, the entire computational domain is covered with Eulerian cells. The reinforcing bar is also covered with Lagrangian particles to avoid numerical oscillations. The physical quantities of the Eulerian cells and Lagrangian particles are mapped to each other by their topological relationships. Different materials do not embed owing to the combination of the fixed cells and single-valued mapping. Numerical simulations of projectile penetration into the concrete slab are compared with the corresponding experimental data and previous numerical results to verify the effectiveness of the coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian method. Then, the deformation history of the reinforcing bar, and the influence of initial penetration velocity, reinforcing bar, and the uniaxial compressive strength and thickness of concrete on the penetration performance are conducted. Numerical results demonstrate that the 3D Eulerian-Lagrangian method can effectively simulate projectile penetration into the reinforced concrete slab.