• Computers and Concrete
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.11-22
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• 2017

There are two methods to model the plastification of members comprising lumped and distributed plasticity. When a reinforced concrete member experiences inelastic deformations, cracks tend to spread from the joint interface resulting in a curvature distribution; therefore, the lumped plasticity methods assuming plasticity is concentrated at a zero-length plastic hinge section at the ends of the elements, cannot model the actual behavior of reinforced concrete members. Some spread plasticity models including uniform, linear and recently power have been developed to take extended inelastic zone into account. In the aforementioned models, the extended inelastic zones in proximity of critical sections assumed close to connections are considered. Although the mentioned assumption is proper for the buildings simply imposed lateral loads, it is not appropriate for the gravity load effects. The gravity load effects can influence the inelastic zones in structural elements; therefore, the plasticity models presenting the flexibility distribution along the member merely based on lateral loads apart from the gravity load effects can bring about incorrect stiffness matrix for structure. In this study, the linear flexibility distribution model is improved to account for the distributed plasticity of members subjected to both gravity and lateral load effects. To do so, a new model in which, each member is taken as one structural element into account is proposed. Some numerical examples from previous studies are assessed and outcomes confirm the accuracy of proposed model. Also comparing the results of the proposed model with other spread plasticity models illustrates glaring error produced due to neglecting the gravity load effects.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.319-341
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• 2009

A new formulation based on lumped plasticity and inelastic hinges is presented in this paper for nonlinear analysis of Reinforced Concrete (RC) frame structures. Inelastic hinge behaviour is described using the principles of Continuum Damage Mechanics (CDM). Member formulation contains provisions to model stiffness degradation due to cracking of concrete and yielding of reinforcing steel. Depending on its nature, cracking is classified as concentrated or distributed. Concentrated cracking is accounted through a damage variable and its growth is defined based on strain energy principles. Presence of distributed flexural cracks in a member is taken care of by modelling it as non-prismatic. Plasticity theory supported by effective stress concept of CDM is applied to describe the post-yield response. Nonlinear quasi-static analysis is carried out on a RC column and a wide two-storey RC frame to verify the formulation. The column is subjected to constant axial load and monotonic lateral load while the frame is subjected to only lateral load. Computed results are compared with those due to experiments or other numerical methods to validate the performance of the formulation and also to highlight the contribution of distributed cracking on global response.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.169-188
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• 2015

There are two types of nonlinear analysis methods for building frameworks depending on the method of modeling the plastification of members including lumped plasticity and distributed plasticity. The lumped plasticity method assumes that plasticity is concentrated at a zero-length plastic hinge section at the ends of the elements. The distributed plasticity method discretizes the structural members into many line segments, and further subdivides the cross-section of each segment into a number of finite elements. When a reinforced concrete member experiences inelastic deformations, cracks tend to spread form the joint interface resulting in a curvature distribution. The program IDARC includes a spread plasticity formulation to capture the variation of the section flexibility, and combine them to determine the element stiffness matrix. In this formulation, the flexibility distribution in the structural elements is assumed to be the linear. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the accuracy of linear flexibility distribution assumed in the spread inelasticity model. For this purpose, nonlinear analysis of two reinforced concrete frames is carried out and the linear flexibility models used in the elements are compared with the real ones. It is shown that the linear flexibility distribution is incorrect assumption in cases of significant gravity load effects and can be lead to incorrect nonlinear responses in some situations.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.70 no.6
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• pp.703-710
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• 2019

While fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP) materials have been largely used in the retrofitting of concrete buildings, its application has been limited because of some problems such as de-bonding of FRP layers from the concrete surface. This paper is the part of a wide experimental and analytical investigation about flexural retrofitting of reinforced concrete (RC) columns using FRP and mechanical fasteners (MF). A new generation of MF is proposed, which is applicable for retrofitting of RC columns. Furthermore, generally, to evaluate a retrofitted structure the nonlinear static and dynamic analyses are the most accurate methods to estimate the performance of a structure. In the nonlinear analysis of a structure, accurate modeling of structural elements is necessary for estimation the reasonable results. So for nonlinear analysis of a structure, modeling parameters for beams, columns, and beam-column joints are essential. According to the concentrated hinge method, which is one of the most popular nonlinear modeling methods, structural members shall be modeled using concentrated or distributed plastic hinge models using modeling parameters. The nonlinear models of members should be capable of representing the inelastic response of the component. On the other hand, in performance based design to make a decision about a structure or design a new one, numerical acceptance should be determined. Modeling parameters and numerical acceptance criteria are different for buildings of different types and for different performance levels. In this paper, a new method was proposed for FRP retrofitted columns to avoid FRP debonding. For this purpose, mechanical fasteners were used to achieve the composite behavior of FRP and concrete columns. The experimental results showed that the use of the new method proposed in this paper increased the flexural strength and lateral load capacity of the columns significantly, and a good composition of FRP and RC column was achieved. Moreover, the modeling parameters and acceptance criteria were presented, which were derived from the experimental study in order to use in nonlinear analysis and performance-based design approach.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.1195-1211
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• 2016

In this study, seismic behaviour of reinforced concrete buildings using the pushover and incremental dynamic analysis method was investigated. A numerical study was performed for a reinforced concrete frame building. Pushover analysis according to uniform and triangular load shapes and incremental dynamic analyses were performed for selected building. For the nonlinear analysis, three ground motion records were selected to ensure compatibility with the design spectrum defined in the Turkish Seismic Code. The maximum response, dynamic pushover curve, capacity curves, interstorey drifts and moment rotation curves for various element ends of the selected building were obtained. Results were compared each other and good correlation was obtained between the dynamic analyses envelope with static pushover curves for the building.