Performance of aramid fiber reinforced concrete panels under blast loads

It has been reported that thin concrete panels reinforced with meshed aramid fiber were able to absorb and dissipate energy from impact loads. Therefore, it is likely that internally bonded aramid fibers perform well under blast loads where high strain rates involve with the material level responses similar to that from impact loads. A series of blast tests were conducted to investigate the blast performance of reinforced concrete (RC) panels with and without internal aramid fiber reinforcement. Two steel arrangements (5RB6@225 and 11RB6@90) were selected as reinforcement for the test specimens. With each rebar arrangement, two panels were cast where one with ordinary concrete and another with aramid fiber reinforced concrete. Fiber reinforcing was performed by adding aramid fibers to the fresh concrete during the concrete mixing processes. All the aramid fiber reinforced concrete (AFRC) panels were cast with one percent of fiber volume fraction. Blast tests indicate that AFRC panels outperform RC panels in overall performance.