Weibull distribution based constitutive model for nonlinear analysis of RC beams

Reinforced concrete is a complex material to be modeled in finite element domain. A proper material model is necessary to represent the nonlinear behaviour accurately. Though the nonlinear analysis of RC structures evolved long back, still an accurate and reliable model to predict the realistic behaviour of components are limited. It is observed from literature that there are three well-known models to represent the nonlinear behaviour of concrete. These models include Chu model (1985), Hsu model (1994) and Saenz model (1964).A new stress-strain model based on Weibull distribution has been proposed in the present study. The objective of the present study is to analyze a reinforced concrete beam under flexural loading by employing all the models. Nonlinear behaviour of concrete is considered in terms of stress vs. strain, damage parameter, tension stiffening behaviour etc. The ductility of the RC beams is computed by using deflection based and energy based concepts. Both deflection ductility and energy based ductility is compared and energy based concept is found to be in good correlation with the experiments conducted. The behavior of RC beam predicted using ABAQUS has been compared with the corresponding experimental observations. Comparison between numerical and experimental results confirms that these four constitutive models are reliable in predicting the behaviour of RC structures and any of the models can be employed for analysis.