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Abstract
The ultimate aim of this study was to maximize the energy dissipation capacity of rubberized fiber reinforced concrete (FRC) mixtures subjected to impact forces for the purpose of improving the impact resilience of GDOT safety barriers and other applications. The first part of this study involved small-scale testing of preliminary mixtures to optimize compressive strength, modulus of rupture, and impact resilience using a fixed percentage of tire chip replacement of the coarse aggregate and varying volume fractions of steel, polypropylene, and polyvinyl alcohol fibers. Rubberized FRC beams were then tested under static loads to maximize the static energy dissipation potential of steel fiber inclusion at varying tensile steel reinforcement ratios. The final part of this study involved performing scaled drop-weight impact tests and results confirmed that rubberized FRCs exhibit significantly improved energy dissipation capacity and impact resilience, particularly with 1.0% steel fiber addition and 20% tire chip replacement.