Under impact loads, it may be challenging to analyze reinforced concrete (RC) sandwich plates with hollow structures in terms of crushing, punching, cracking, and crack trajectories via static and dynamic equations. In the literature, the finite element solutions were conducted after determining the behaviors of the materials according to test results. Therefore, it is required to test the behaviors of RC plates. In this study, the behaviors of sandwich plates under impact loads were analyzed experimentally. The sandwich plates were manufactured by cutting polyester foams (PF) into hexagonal prisms, square prisms, I-type, and S-type, and installing them inside the reinforced concrete plates. The manufactured sandwich plates are 27% lighter than full plates. A weight of 320 kg was dropped freely from 2.5m, and the load was implemented on the center of the plate at a velocity of 7.5 m/s. Similar implementations were also conducted for filled plates, and the maximum displacements were measured in both types of plate tests. By comparing the measurements obtained from each test, the sandwich plate with core geometry that provided the highest absorption, namely, the lowest displacement, was determined. In the analyses, the S-type core geometry demonstrated more absorption compared to other core geometries.

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Measures taken against preventing damages in structures against explosive load are a popular matter of investigation among researchers. Generally, numerous studies were conducted on reinforcement materials for outer surfaces, reinforcement design, and utilizing fibers produced from various materials. In this study, a hollow-core slab was manufactured with concrete, which had a regular strength, and a design that discharged the explosive energy upon contact explosion via the hollow cores of the slabs and prevented the redirection of the explosive energy to the area below the slabs was investigated. Because the hollow-core slab in the study did not have any lateral reinforcement, the utilization of the tensile strength of the concrete proved advantageous. For this purpose, in the experimental tests of the study, contact explosions were conducted on hollow-core slabs with hollow diameters of 14 cm for each core. Before the explosion tests, the TNT equivalent of 910gr explosive was determined by performing the TNT equivalent tests. In the explosion tests of prepared hollow core concrete slabs, 125 gr, 250 gr, 375 gr, and 500 gr dynamites were used as the explosive materials. In conclusion, the explosive loads that the slabs could withstand were calculated and various slabs with distinctive hollow-core diameters were determined depending on the amount of the explosives.