NON-LINEAR FINITE ELEMENT MODELING OF SHEAR CRITICAL REINFORCED CONCRETE ELEMENTS

Abstract

This research presents an analytical study on the modeling of shear critical reinforced concrete beans model using the finite element method. The research investigates two modeling strategies; the first of which is the well established smeared cracking modeling approach. The experimental test results from a wide range of beans tested by other researchers were used for model verification. This research presents a mixed modeling approach in which the smeared cracking model was used in conjunction with a discrete cracking modeling shear in an effort to reach a better correlation with experimental data. This is achieved by introducing specific plans at the suspected plans of failure for shear critical beans. Analytical results have shown that the proposed modeling approach is capable of better simulation of the observed experimental response in terms of strength, stiffness, simulation as well as capturing the post-peak response of the beans. A total of thirty three simple reinforced concrete beams previously tested through experimental programs of researches, were used to achieve the goal of these study. ABAQUS v6.10 is the finite element program used for modeling through this study.