Failure analysis of R/C columns using a triaxial concrete model

Abstract

Inelastic failure analysis of concrete structures has been one of the central issues in concrete mechanics. Especially, the effect of confinement has been of great importance to capture the transition from brittle to ductile fracture of concrete under triaxial loading scenarios. Moreover, it has been a challenge to implement numerically material descriptions, which are susceptible to loss of stability and localization. In this article, a novel triaxial concrete model is presented, which captures the full spectrum of triaxial stress and strain histories in reinforced concrete structures. Thereby, inelastic dilatation is controlled by a non-associated flow rule to attain realistic predictions of inelastic volume change at various confinement levels. Different features of distributed and localized failure of the concrete model are examined under confined compression, uniaxial tension, pure shear, and simple shear. The performance at the structural level is illustrated with the example of a reinforced concrete column subjected to combined axial and transverse loading.