Analysis of the Dynamic Behaviour of UHPFRC Used in Protective Structures

Understanding the mechanical behaviour of UHPFRC materials under extreme loads is crucial for designing safer structures. Under severe loading cases such as impacts and explosions, structural strength and reliability has become increasingly important due to increased accident frequency and global terrorist threats. It should be noted that many critical infrastructures, such as government buildings (e.g., embassies, checkpoints), tunnels, and bridges, are susceptible to improvised explosive devices (IEDs). The protection of infrastructure from the effects of IEDs often requires the construction of protective structures, such as cementitius composites shields. A wide experimental campaign on several types of Ultra-High Performance Fibre Reinforced Concrete (UHPFRC) under dynamic loading is summarised in this paper as well as the different experimental techniques are described.