TY - CONF A1 - Hering, Marcus A1 - Fiedler, Georg T1 - Investigation of multiple impact-damaged reinforced concrete structures as a reference for liquid penetration behavior and tomographic studies N2 - The structural integrity of outer reinforced concrete (RC) containments of nuclear power plants provides an essential shield against external hazards. If this containment is damaged by an impact event, such as an aircraft crash, the question arises to which degree the reinforced concrete containment still has its protective capability. This concerns both purely structural protection and protection against liquids penetrating the interior of the containment. Due to the dimensions of the containment structures, it is difficult to perform real scale impact experiments, so in the past decades plate geometries at medium scale have been used for investigations. Detailed investigations on the structural behaviour of RC members or RC plates subjected to impact loading have already been presented in Just et al., Hering, Hering et al., Bracklow et al., Hille et al. and Nerger et al. The following investigations deal with the single and multiple impact event (first hard impact and/or subsequent soft impact) on a RC specimen, which provides the basis for further investigations. A description of the test setup and the test procedure as well as a presentation of the test results from the impact tests are provided. Furthermore, the experimental program is presented, which the damaged RC specimens are to undergo to deal with the question of how much the impact-damaged RC structure has become permeable to liquid media, such as water and kerosene, depending on the intensity of the impact. The aim of these following investigations is to develop a test setup that can be applied to investigate the liquid penetration behaviour (LPB) of small, medium, and large-scale RC members. In addition to the liquid penetration experiments, the damaged specimens are to be examined by planar tomography to obtain the damage inside the specimen. The combination of damaging event, fluid penetration behaviour and tomography should enable a comprehensive understanding of the damage to the RC specimen. T2 - Conference: 27th International Conference on Structural Mechanics in Reactor Technology (SMiRT) CY - Yokohama, Japan DA - 04.03.2024 KW - Drop Tower KW - Hard Impact KW - Multiple Impact KW - Soft Impact PY - 2024 AN - OPUS4-61991 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Agasty, Amit A1 - Hering, Marcus T1 - Experimental and Numerical Analysis of Reinforced Concrete Structures Under Blast Loading: Scopes and Challenges N2 - Protection against terrorist or accidental scenarios in industrial settings requires suitable designs of structures to resist blast loads. Field testing as well as finite element simulations are among the techniques available to engineers in the understanding of the structural behavior against blast loading. As blast testing of complex scenarios can be very resource intensive, tests are generally performed for simplified scenarios. Numerical tools can be used to model these scenarios in order to get a better insight into blast loading, structural response and the resulting damage to the structure. In the next steps, the simplified scenario is successively modified in numerical simulations to incorporate complexities that cannot be covered in blast testing experiments. One of the conditions for this approach to work is that the original simplified numerical simulation is valid. The scopes and challenges encountered in such a validation are the focus of this presentation. A relatively ‘simple’ field test of a horizontal reinforced concrete (RC) slab subjected to blast loading is taken as an example for validation of the performance of numerical tools. The blast test incorporated various measurement techniques to quantify the blast load as well as the behavior of the RC slab. Blast load was measured using flush-mounted piezoelectric pressure gauges, whereas acceleration sensors and fiber-optic sensor cables were used to characterize the dynamic behavior of the slab under blast loading. Additionally, damage characteristics were ascertained also using fiber-optic sensing. The application of such measurement techniques, along with different numerical software available for the analysis of the scenario in question, demonstrate the scope of our contribution. T2 - 24th International Physical Security Forum Brussels CY - Brussels, Belgium DA - 15.04.2024 KW - Blast KW - Reinforced Concrete Structures KW - Numerical simulations PY - 2024 AN - OPUS4-60880 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Hering, Marcus T1 - Explosion effects on reinforced concrete structures: A preliminary study of scaling laws N2 - Blast tests are required to investigate accidental or intentional blast events and to assess the level of protection for people and facilities in critical infrastructures. Conducting large-scale field tests for complex scenarios is very resource intensive. Reliable small-scale experiments are a promising alternative. However, the scaling laws for the design of reinforced concrete structures under blast loads are not sufficiently established. In our research work, a consortium made up of three BAM departments, focuses on reinforced concrete structures that are suitable for the standardization of scaled blast tests. As part of the feasibility study, blast tests were carried out on test specimens of different sizes on the BAM Test Site for Technical Safety (TTS). Various reinforced concrete plates were tested and subjected to different blast loads. The blast tests included various measurement techniques to quantify the blast load and the behavior of the reinforced concrete plate. The blast load was measured with flush-mounted piezoelectric pressure gauges, while accelerometers and embedded fiber optic sensor cables were used to characterize the dynamic behavior of the plate under blast loading. In addition, damage characteristics were also determined using distributed fiber optic sensing. The application of these measurement techniques as well as the use of different numerical software tools offer the possibility to verify or adapt the scaling laws. T2 - 19th International Symposium on Interaction of the Effects of Munitions with Structures (19th ISIEMS) CY - Bonn, Germany DA - 09.12.2024 KW - Blast KW - Fiber optic sensing KW - Scaling PY - 2024 AN - OPUS4-62260 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Rogge, Andreas T1 - Large scale impact tests with reinforced concrete plates for impact safety N2 - As part of a nuclear safety research project, large-scale impact tests were conducted on reinforced concrete slabs to investigate the structural integrity of containment structures under aircraft crash scenarios. The aim was to experimentally validate numerical models for both hard and soft impact conditions. Using a drop tower, concrete slabs were subjected to controlled impacts with a 404 kg impactor dropped from a height of 9.5 meters. The tests included force measurements, photogrammetric evaluations, and 3D scans to analyze deformations and damage. A total of six impact experiments were performed (2x hard impact, 2x combined hard/soft impact). The results provide a robust basis for advancing safety assessments of nuclear facilities. T2 - SMiRT28 - 28th International Conference on Structural Mechanics In Reactor Technology CY - Toronto, Canada DA - 10.08.2025 KW - Experimental mechanics KW - Aircraft crash scenario KW - Coupled impact loading PY - 2025 AN - OPUS4-64126 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Agasty, Amit T1 - Assessment of the Application of Scaling Concepts for Blast Effects Analysis N2 - Blast testing finds its implementation in several applications, e.g. for the purpose of investigation into accidental or intentional explosions, or for an assessment of the level of protection provided by a certain structural configuration. Analytical and/or semi-empirical methods are generally limited to preliminary assessments prior to blast testing. Applications of numerical simulations with hydrocodes coupled with finite element methods (FEM) can only reduce the amount of blast testing required, as these necessitate fulfillment of the fundamental prerequisites of model verification and that of model validation. Field tests are implemented for contact detonations as well as near-field blast scenarios and shock tube tests for far-field blast scenarios. However, these can be extremely resource intensive. Reliable small-scale experiments are a promising alternative. The concepts of dimensional analysis and similarity based on Buckingham’s Π-theorem (1914) have been applied in different fields. For applications to the phenomenon of shock wave propagation, Hopkinson-Cranz or cube-root scaling is a well-established concept. When it comes to scaling the structural response, research has predominantly focused on structures made of metallic materials. Scaled investigations with concrete or reinforced concrete (RC) structures remain limited. The lack of even the most basic guidelines (far from any ‘standardized scaling methods’ for blast tests) show that scaling as a method is not yet established in blast effects analysis. In this preliminary study, we present a systematic approach and evaluation of scaling of blast effects analysis for RC slabs in order to develop guidelines for resource efficient testing methods. We study the blast scenario at two different scales. The focus of these investigations has been on evaluation of scaling of dynamics using pressure sensors, acceleration sensors and fiber optic sensing cables for distributed acoustic sensing (DAS). Further, the resulting plastic behavior upon blast is characterized by distributed strain sensing (DSS) along the same cables. T2 - 27th International Symposium on Military Aspects of Blast and Shock (MABS27) CY - Colmar, France DA - 06.10.2025 KW - Blast KW - RC-slabs KW - Similarity and scaling PY - 2025 AN - OPUS4-64616 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -