Behavior modeling and damage quantification of confined concrete under cyclic loading

Abstract

Sets of nonlinear formulations together with an energy-based damage index (DI) are proposed to model the behavior and quantify the damage of the confined and unconfined concretes under monotonic and cyclic loading. The proposed formulations and DI can be employed in numerical simulations to determine the stresses and the damages to the fibers or the layers within the sections of reinforced concrete (RC) components. To verify the proposed formulations, an adaptive finite element computer program was generated to simulate the RC structures subjected to monotonic and cyclic loading. By comparing the simulated and the experimental test results, on both the full-scale structural members and concrete cylindrical samples, the proposed uniaxial behavior modeling formulations for confined and unconfined concretes under monotonic and cyclic loading, based on an iterative process, were accordingly adjusted, and then validated. The proposed formulations have strong mathematical structures and can readily be adapted to achieve a higher degree of precision by improving the relevant coefficients based on more precise tests. To apply the proposed DI, the stress-strain data of concrete elements is required. It can easily be calculated by using the proposed nonlinear constitutive laws for confined and unconfined concretes in this paper.