A damage model formulation: unilateral effect and RC structures analysis

Abstract

This work deals with a damage model formulation taking into account the unilateral effect of the mechanical behaviour of brittle materials such as concrete. The material is assumed as an initial elastic isotropic medium presenting anisotropy, permanent strains and bimodularity induced by damage evolution. Two damage tensors governing the stiffness in tension or compression regimes are introduced. A new damage tensor in tension regimes is proposed in order to model the diffuse damage originated in prevails compression regimes. Accordingly with micromechanical theory, the constitutive model is validate when dealing with unilateral effect of brittle materials, Finally, the proposed model is applied in the analyses of reinforced concrete framed structures submitted to reversal loading. The numerical results have shown the good performance of the modelling and its potentialities to simulate practical problems in structural engineering.