The aim of this study was to experimentally examine the impact response of a RPC (Reactive Powder Concrete) beam and develop an analytical model to represent its impact response. Thus, a drop hammer impact test was performed to investigate the influence of drop height of the hammer on the impact response of the RPC beam. Subsequently, a static flexural loading test was conducted to find out the residual load carrying capacity of the RPC beam after impact loading. In the impact analysis, the two degrees of freedom mass-spring-damper system model was used. The analytical results were in good agreement with the experimental results when high damping for the local response at the contact point was assumed.

Reactive Powder Concrete (RPC) reinforced with short steel fibers is characterized by ultra-high strength and high fracture toughness. Because of its excellent properties, RPC may be suitable as an advanced material for reinforced concrete structures subjected to impact loading. Thus, the objective of this study was to find out the effects of strain rates on tensile behaviors of RPC specimens subjected to rapid loading. The influence of the loading rates on failure modes, tensile stress-elongation curves and tensile stress-crack opening curves was investigated. Furthermore, based on the test results, a rate-dependent bridging law expressing the relation between tensile stress and crack opening was proposed.

The aim of this study was to develop an analytical model based on a fiber model technique for representing the behavior of a reinforced Reactive Powder Concrete (RPC) beam subjected to rapid flexural loads. In the analytical model, first, the moment-curvature relationship of the section of the RPC beam was calculated, considering the fact that the constituent materials, i.e., RPC and reinforcing steel, exhibit strain rate effects on mechanical properties. Then, the load-midspan deflection relationship was obtained through the moment-curvature relationship. The analytical model was applied to the experimental results for verification. The analytical results were in good agreement with the experimental results. Subsequently, analytical investigations were performed to find out the influence of variables, such as loading rates, compressive strengths, the amount of reinforcing steel and the volume fraction of steel fibers, on the behaviors of RPC beams.