Abstract
Numerical simulations have been widely used to study the inelastic response of reinforced concrete structures under earthquake loading. Yet, due to the complex nature of structural inelastic behavior, experimental results are often required to verify the efficiency of applied numerical schemes. In this paper, experimental results of bare reinforced concrete frame models are employed to validate numerical calculations using the code Seismostruct. Moreover, numerical simulations investigate the influential parameters related to the physical experiment configuration and numerical analysis options and determine their effect on the obtained structural response. The experimental setup concerns a well-defined case study of a reinforced concrete frame under cyclic horizontal loading. The fixed base frame is subjected to increasing horizontal forces, leading to the development of plastic hinges at the structural elements. The adopted numerical approach describes successfully the inelastic behavior of the frame, as indicated by the obtained results of the overall structural response as well as the plastic hinge formation at cross section level. Comparison of the plastic hinge formation mechanism in particular, raises interesting remarks on the conditions and constraints of the physical experiments and highlights the valuable contribution of numerical simulations in their design.
Highlights
Numerical simulations are widely used in everyday civil engineering practice to design safe and cost-efficient structural systems
The present paper focuses on the experimental investigation of bare frames and Specimen B with common stirrups as shear reinforcement and Specimen BS with rectangular spirals
Comparison between numerical and experimental results at global level, in terms of force-displacement diagrams for the frame depicted in Fig. (12a), reveals that numerical simulation yields 10-20% lower horizontal strength values at the post-elastic response range
Summary
Numerical simulations are widely used in everyday civil engineering practice to design safe and cost-efficient structural systems. Nowadays, considering the current trend in modern Seismic Codes for simplified inelastic analysis even in the case of common structures (e.g. calculation of behavior factor q in Eurocode 8), it is imperative to provide efficient and reliable numerical procedures. Despite the large number of available numerical codes, the complicated nature of the inelastic response of RC structures often raises questions regarding the efficiency of numerical analysis approaches in many cases. Experimental results are required, to verify the efficiency and applicability of numerical analysis in the examined cases. To this end, validation of numerical simulations using physical experiments is very important in
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