An experimental investigation of plain, reinforced, and prestressed concrete slabs subjected to non-deformable projectile impact

The ballistic experiments conducted in this study, employing plain, reinforced, and prestressed concrete slabs, each with 80- and 60-mm thicknesses against an ogive-nosed steel projectile with a mass of 0.4 kg and shank diameter of 19 mm at incidence velocities ranging 86-206 m/s. The reinforced concrete (RC) slabs were cast with two distinct configurations of reinforcement, denoted as the first and second RC slab. The prestressed concrete (PRC) slab undertook two distinct levels of prestress (LOP) of about 12 % and 24 % of the grade of concrete (50 MPa). The size of rear crater and volume of scabbing of each concrete slab decreased with an increase in the projectile's incidence velocity depicting the damage localization. The 12 % prestress in the first PRC slab was responsible for globalizing the crater in comparison to the second RC slab. Further globalization of crater occurred due to the higher prestress (about 24 %) in the second PRC slab in comparison to the first PRC slab. Additional reinforcement provided in one direction in the second RC slab truncated the size of rear crater describing their influence. The higher prestress induced in the second PRC slab of thickness 80 and 60 mm was increased the ballistic limits by nearly 8 % and 7 % when compared with the first PRC slab of the same respective thickness. The 12 % prestress in the first PRC slab of thickness 80 and 60 mm enhanced the ballistic limits by nearly 12 % and 7 % in comparison to the second RC slab of the same respective thickness.