Response of low-temperature steel beams subjected to single and repeated lateral impacts

Abstract

This paper presents the experimental and numerical investigation results of the response of low-temperature steel (LT-FH32 grade steel) beams under repeated impacts at room temperature and a single impact at a sub-zero temperature. After conducting tensile tests at room and sub-zero, repeated impact tests were conducted on two clamped single-beam models at room temperature, and single-impact tests of two other clamped single-beam models were conducted at −50 °C. The single and repeated impact tests were conducted by releasing a knife-edge striker using a drop testing machine. The permanent deflection of the model measured after each impact gradually increased with increasing number of impacts. Under the reduced temperature, the permanent deflection of the models slightly decreased. The numerical analyses were also performed to predict the damage response of the tested single-beam models. A comparison of the numerical prediction with those of experiments showed quite reasonable agreement. Keywords: Low-temperature steel beam, Repeated impact test, Sub-zero temperature, Numerical analysis