Experimental study on hybrid CFRP-PU strengthening effect on RC panels under blast loading

Recently, fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) usages for strengthening RC infrastructures have been continuously increasing. Especially, the use of FRPs to strengthen structures against a blast terror or an impact accident is receiving great interests from specialists in the structural retrofitting and strengthening field. In order to achieve better protections from blast or impact loading, a new retrofit composite material has been proposed by combining highly stiff and strong material of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) with highly ductile material of Polyurea (PU). The combination of CFRP and PU can result in a retrofit composite with enhanced stiffness and ductility properties as well as fragment catching characteristic. To estimate the hybrid composite’s blast resistant capacity, nine 1000 × 1000 × 150 mm RC panel specimens retrofitted with either CFRP, PU, or hybrid composite sheets were blast tested. The blast load was generated by detonating a 15.88 kg ANFO explosive charge at 1.5 m standoff distance. The data of free field incident and reflected blast pressures, maximum and residual displacements, and steel and concrete strains, etc. are measured from the test. Also, the failure mode and crack patterns were evaluated to determine the failure characteristic of the panels. The results from the experiments showed that the hybrid composite has better blast resistant capacity than ordinary retrofit FRPs. The study results are discussed in detail in the paper. The test results will not only provide blast resistant capacity of each retrofit material, but they will be valuable backup data for preliminary estimation of RC structural members’ blast protection performances.