Experimental investigation of RC slabs under air and underwater contact explosions

Abstract

The blast experimental test is an effective method to observe the failure characteristics of reinforced concrete (RC) slabs to contact explosion. However, the existing explosion experiments on RC slabs are mainly focused on air blast. Corresponding experiments of RC slabs to underwater explosion are limited. In this article, both air and underwater contact explosion experiments are carried out. Ten specimens of concrete slabs including three plain concrete slabs and seven RC slabs are tested. Five specimens are subjected to air contact explosion, and other five specimens are subjected to underwater contact explosion. The influence of the boundary condition, reinforcement, charge shapes, and charge mass on failure modes of concrete slabs is investigated. The damage characteristics and failure modes of concrete slabs subjected to air and underwater contact explosions are compared. The results indicate that underwater contact explosion can cause more damage to the concrete slab than the same amount of explosive in air. Even one electric detonator detonated in the water can cause damage to the RC slab.

Keywords:

• Reinforced concrete slab
• air contact blast
• underwater contact explosion
• failure mode
• damage characteristic

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The authors gratefully appreciate the supports from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51509189), the Major Program of Technological Innovation of Hubei Province (No. 2017ACA102), Chinese National Natural Science Foundation (No. 51809016), and the National Key Research Project (No. 2016YFC0402008).