An isotropic damage model to simulate collapse in reinforced concrete elements

Abstract

A damage model with different failure surface in tension and compression is formulated, implemented and validated to study reinforced concrete elements under actions which induce their collapse. The constitutive behaviour of concrete considers the softening deformation after reaching a failure surface, whereas the hardening of the reinforcing steel is represented by a plasticity von Mises surface. The developed damage model does not exhibit the problem of stress locking as the smeared cracking model does; this guaranties an adequate energy release as the material fails. Numerical examples are presented showing the validity of the developed damage model for modelling the behaviour of reinforced concrete elements up to their collapse.