Local Damage to Reinforced Concrete Panels Subjected to Oblique Impact by Projectiles: Numerical Analysis on Test Results

This study aims at proposing a numerical analysis method to evaluate local damage to reinforced concrete (RC) panel caused by projectile impact. To validate the proposed numerical analysis method, we recently conducted a series of impact tests with normal and oblique impacts due to rigid and soft projectiles. We intend to compare the numerical results with experimental results including reaction forces, damage modes of RC panel and soft projectile in oblique impact. In the numerical analysis for evaluation of local damage to RC panel, there are several key parameters, such as material properties, contact conditions between concrete and projectile. In addition to these parameters, we also focused on the reaction forces of RC panel, which is important when investigating the impact effects on structure under projectile impact. Since the stiffness of support structure is represented as a spring element in finite element (FE) model, we examined the relationship between the spring stiffness and numerically computed reaction forces in oblique impact. The numerical analysis method for oblique impact is validated, and the local damage in the RC panel is evaluated, by comparing experimental and numerical results.