Numerical simulations of metallic foam safeguarded RC square columns under lateral soft impact

When a truck impacts on a reinforced concrete (RC) column such as a bridge pier at a high velocity, a large reaction force would generate which would damage the truck, hurt the passengers and destroy the column. Lightweight foams with excellent energy absorbing performance are often used as safeguard constructions to resist impact. The impact behavior can be divided into soft and hard impact. In the case of soft impact, the impacted structure deformation is predominant. In the paper, metallic foam safeguarded RC square columns impacted by a rigid block are simulated using the ABAQUS code software, and the influential characteristic of foam density on the peak impact force and ultimate energy absorption is focused on. The simulated results indicate that the foam safeguard constructions play remarkable role on impact resistance. It is exciting that there appears almost an identical critical foam density corresponding to the minimum peak force and the ultimate energy absorption, which is of great significance for engineering design of this type of safeguard constructions to resist impact.