Consecutve falling-weight impact test of large-scale RC girders under specified total input-impact energy

In order to establish a performance-based impact resistant design procedure for reinforced concrete structures, consecutive falling-weight impact loading tests were conducted under specified total input-impact energy. In this experiment, the girders have rectangular cross section of 1 m width and depth, and 8 m clear-span length. A 2,000 kg steel weight was used and total input-impact energy was specified as 196 kJ. Three kinds of falling height of weight were set: 3.33 m; 5 m; and 10 m. From this study, following results were obtained: (1) maximum and residual deflections were almost constant values for each input-impact energy; (2) deflections after the final loading were almost the same among all girders; and (3) accumulated residual deflections were proportional to the accumulated input-impact energy and the damage of the girder for each limit state can be precisely evaluated by means of this relationship