Assessment of residual deformation of rear steel plate in RC barriers subjected to impact of non-deforming projectiles

–Response to impact of a rear steel liner (RSL) of composite RC barrier is discussed.–A model is proposed for the prediction of residual deformation of the RSL.–The model shows very good agreement with available experimental results.–Computer resources required are considerably less than by FEM simulations.–A case study demonstrates the capabilities of implementing the model in design.

A model is proposed for the prediction of residual deformations of a composite reinforced concrete barrier with a rear steel liner, due to impact of a non-deforming projectile. The model is based on representation of the response of the rear steel liner to the impact of the projectile and the ejecting concrete fragments by a single degree of freedom equivalent system. It has been verified against published experimental results and showed a good agreement. A case study demonstrates the capabilities of the proposed model for constructing design curves that take into account the influences of the steel and concrete thicknesses as well as the concrete strength on the predicted residual deformation of the steel liner. An allowable deflection criterion is proposed for the usage of the proposed tool. Finally, it is shown that although results of 3D comprehensive numerical simulations, carried out with a hydro-dynamic code, may also be in good agreement with experimental data, they required long CPU time and considerable computer resources, which are considerably more than those required by the proposed method to achieve results of similar quality.