Capturing Out-of-Plane Shear Failures in the Analysis of Reinforced Concrete Shells

Abstract

AbstractA procedure for nonlinear analysis of RC slabs and shell structures is presented. Cracked RC is treated as an orthotropic material governed by a smeared rotating crack procedure and the constitutive formulations of the disturbed stress field model. The analysis procedure is implemented within the framework of a finite-element program employing layered thick-shell elements that consider out-of-plane (through-thickness) shear deformations. A simple modification method employing an effective shear strain concept is introduced to improve the out-of-plane performance of the layered shell element for RC applications. The adequacy of the procedure is verified using test data of RC members controlled by out-of-plane shear failure mechanisms and elements under combined in-plane and out-of-plane loading scenarios. The nonlinear finite-element program is shown to be suitable for elements exhibiting ductile or brittle responses, and the shear modification method introduced is found to be capable of capturing ...