An applicability of equivalent failure energy concept on numerical analysis of consecutive falling-weight impact loading for full-scale RC girders

In order to rationally analyze an impact resistant behavior of the full-scale reinforced concrete (RC) girders under consecutive impact loading, it is proposed to apply an equivalent tensile fracture-energy concept for concrete elements. The applicability is investigated by conducting numerical simulations for full-scale RC girder with 8 m clear span under a 2,000 kg fallin-gweight consecutive impact loading. The numerical simulations are conducted taking an axial length of concrete elements and with/without considering the concept as the parameters, in which the reference length of concrete elements is 35.7 mm and the considered maximum length is 250 mm. From this study, it is confirmed that considering the equivalent fracture-energy concept, the model with coarse mesh can be practically applied with a proper accuracy for numerical analysis of the full-scale RC girders under consecutive impact loading