Meshfree modeling of concrete slab perforation using a reproducing kernel particle impact and penetration formulation

•Meshfree reproducing kernel particle formulation presented for concrete perforation.•Concrete constitutive model was enhanced using a multiscale approach to material damage.•Formulation was validated with large caliber penetrator experiments with concrete targets.•Advantages with respect to evolutionary contact and debris field generation are highlighted.

A meshfree formulation under the reproducing kernel particle method (RKPM) was introduced for modeling the penetration and perforation of brittle geomaterials such as concrete. RKPM provides a robust framework to effectively model the projectile-target interaction and the material failure and fragmentation behaviors that are critical for this class of problems. A stabilized semi-Lagrangian formulation, in conjunction with a multiscale material damage model for brittle geomaterials and a kernel contact algorithm, were introduced for penetration modeling. In this work, the accuracy of the meshfree impact and penetration formulation was studied using a series of large-caliber projectile concrete slab perforation experiments with impact velocities in the ballistic regime. These experiments were selected due to the challenging nature of concrete perforation, and the results were used to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method to model the penetration processes and the concrete target failure. Simulation results confirm the formulation's accuracy for this type of high-rate ballistic problem and establish a basis for extension to other types of impact problems. The results show the importance of properly formulating the method of domain integration to maintain accuracy in the presence of concrete fragmentation, and also highlight the method's ability to capture the fragmentation response without a need for non-physical treatments commonly used in conventional methods.