Impact tests on steel–concrete–steel sandwich beams with lightweight concrete core

This paper studies the impact performance of Steel–Concrete–Steel (SCS) sandwich beams consisting of a lightweight concrete core sandwiched between two face plates that are connected by J-hook connectors. Impact tests were carried out by dropping free weights on to sandwich beams to investigate their structural response against impact loads. Test results revealed that the proposed J-hook connectors provide an effective means to interlock the top and bottom steel face plates, preventing them from separation during impact. The use of fibres in concrete core and J-hook connectors for composite action enhances the overall structural integrity of the sandwich beams when compared with those without such enhancement. An elastic–plastic analysis method is developed to predict the force-indentation relationship of sandwich sections subjected to local impact. Dynamic analysis based on the local force-indentation relationship is carried out to predict the impact force and global response behavior of the sandwich beams. The predicted results are compared with those obtained from the tests to validate their accuracy so that they can be used to evaluate the performance of sandwich beams under low velocity hard impact.