Hydromechanical modelling of the influence of water saturation on the penetration performance of concrete target.

The objective of the present paper is to study numerically the hydro-mechanical behaviour of concrete targets subjected to a rigid projectile, with special attention to the influence of water saturation. An elastoplastic model, encompassing two primary plastic mechanisms (shear and pore collapse), is improved to capture the influence of water saturation. The adopted model is implemented in the finite element code Abaqus/Explicit and validated by simulating two dynamic compression tests at the material point level and two penetration tests at the structure level. Not only a strong influence of water saturation on both volumetric and deviatoric behaviours of concrete is observed at material point level, but also the time-evolutions of projectile velocity, projectile deceleration and penetration depth in concrete targets are also satisfactorily reproduced by the numerical simulations. After that, a series of parametric studies are performed to understand the influence of water saturation on the penetration performance of concrete. It is found that with the presence of pore water, penetration resistance of concrete increases with decreasing water saturation, indicating a higher projectile deceleration and lower penetration depth obtained in saturated targets. Numerical modelling and analysis will enhance our understanding of the vulnerability of concrete infrastructures subjected to near-field detonations or impacts. • Fully coupled hydro-mechanical behaviour of concrete target subjected to a rigid projectile is analysed. • Water saturation of concrete target has an important impact on the penetration behaviour of projectile. • Concrete target with lower saturation degree exhibits higher penetration resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]