A numerical model for reinforced concrete structures

This paper describes a two-dimensional approach to model fracture of reinforced concrete structures under (increasing) static loading conditions. The first part is dedicated to the concrete material. The concrete is described in compression by a non-local isotropic damage constitutive law. In tension, a fictitious crack/crack band model is proposed. The influence of biaxial stress states is incorporated in the constitutive relations. In the second part a bond model is described. It accounts for different failure mechanisms, a pullout failure and a splitting failure. This approach is applied to prestressed concrete beams with different failure mechanisms. The numerical results are compared to experimental data and show good agreement. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.