Abstract
The objectives of this study are to evaluate the reliability of an existing nonlinear analysis program for predicting the inelastic behavior of reinforced concrete frame with seismic details and to observe the redistribution of the internal forces, which can not be easily measured by an experiment. In order to carry out this task, the nonlinear analysis program of IDARC 2D(3) was run on a 2-bay, 2-story moment-resisting reinforced concrete plane frame with seismic details. (1) The effort to obtain the results of the analysis similar to those of experiment was made by determining the appropriate values of model parameters. The comparison of the analysis results with those of experiment and the observation of the distribution of internal forces obtained through nonlinear analysis points to the following conclusions. (1) The overall relationship between lateral load and lateral displacement given by the analysis is similar to that of experiment. However, the values of initial stiffness and the amount of energy dissipation in the initial displacement steps given by the analysis show larger values than those of experiment. (2) The analysis provided detailed information on the distribution and redistribution of internal forces and proved useful in elucidating the crack pattern, the sequence of the occurrence of plastic hinges, and the failure or yielding mechanism for the whole structure. (3) In spite of the similarity in overall behavior of analysis and experiment, there exists a significant discrepancy in some local behaviors. Furthermore, the hysteresis in the relationship between moment and curvature in some column ends have shown sudden deteriorations in strength, which can not be interpreted satisfactorily at the present time. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a better analytical model to fill this knowledge gap.