Abstract
The inelastic behavior of a reinforced concrete columns is influenced by a number of factors : 1) level of axial load, 2) tie spacing, 3) volumetric ratio of lateral steel, 4) concrete strength, 5) distribution of longitudinal steel, 6) strength of lateral steel, 7) cover thickness, 8) configuration of lateral steel, 9) strain gradient, 10) strain rate, 11) the effectively confined concrete core area, and 12) amount of longitudinal steel. A new constitutive model of a confined concrete is suggested in order to investigate the nonlinear behavior of the reinforced concrete columns under concentric loading. The developed constitutive model for the confined concrete takes into account the effects of effectively confined area as well as the horizontal and longitudinal distributions of the confining pressures. None of the existing models incorporated these two main effects at the same time. A total of different six constitutive models for the behavior of the confined concrete under concentric compression were compared with the sixty-one test results reported by different researchers. The superiority of the developed model in its accuracy is demonstrated by evaluating the error function, which compares the weighted averages for the sum of squared relative differences in peak compressive strength and corresponding strain, stress at strain equal to 0.015, and total area under stress-strain curve up to strain equal to 0.015.