A large-scale pendulum impact experiment was carried out in the Smart Structures Laboratory in Swinburne University of Technology. The experiment involved striking a 0.23 m thick, 1.5 m tall and 3.0 m long reinforced concrete wall by “torpedo” shaped impactor objects with mass ranging from 280 kg to 1020 kg. Over 60 pieces of instruments were employed to record important parameters such as the movement of the impactor objects and amount of strain experienced by the reinforcing bars.
Four months of planning phase preceding the actual event were required for the preparation of specimens and instrumentation. The first strike happened on the 25th of April 2018. The experiment was structured into four phases, with each phase focusing on different aspects of the target wall’s response behaviour, all of which are presented in the video.
All personnel involved including the lead research team are acknowledged in the video.