Behaviour of Prestressed and Reinforced Concrete Plates Subjected to Impact Loads Induced by Free Falling Indenter

The behavior of reinforced and prestressed concrete plates has been studied under drop weight impact loading. The reinforced and prestressed concrete plates having the size 0.8 m x 0.8 m and thickness 100 mm. The impact was applied by dropping a mass of 242.8 kg from a fixed height. The characteristic strength of concrete cubes was 51.38 MPa. The generated impact force and deflection time response were measured and the failure modes of the plate specimens were studied. The results thus obtained for reinforced and prestressed concrete plates were compared and discussed. Prestressed concrete plates were found to have higher impact resistance and performed better in comparison to the conventional reinforced concrete plates. The deflection at bottom surface of prestressed concrete plate has also reduced.