Path-dependent three-dimensional constitutive laws of reinforced concrete - formulation and experimental verifications

A three-dimensional constitutive modeling for reinforced concrete is presented for finite element nonlinear analysis of reinforced concrete. The targets of interest to the authors are columns confined by lateral steel hoops, RC thin shells subjected to combined in-plane and out-of-plane actions and massive structures of three-dimensional (3D) extent in shear. The elasto-plastic and continuum fracture law is applied to pre-cracked solid concrete. For post cracking formulation, fixed multi-directional smeared crack model is adopted for RC domains of 3D geometry subjected to monotonic and reversed cyclic actions. The authors propose a new scheme of decomposing stress strain fields into sub-planes on which 2D constitutive laws can be applied. The proposed model for 3D reinforced concrete is experimentally verified in both member and structural levels under cyclic actions.