Tensile damage of reinforced concrete and simulation of the four-point bending test based on the random cracking theory

Based on the random cracking theory, the cylinder RVE model of reinforced concrete is established and the damage process is divided into three stages as the evolution of the cracks. The stress distribution along longitude direction of the concrete and the steel bar in the cylinder model are derived. The equivalent elastic modulus of the RVE are derived and the user-defined field variable subroutine (USDFLD) for the equivalent elastic modulus is well integrated into the ABAQUS. Regarding the tensile rebars and the concrete surrounding the rebars as the equivalent homogeneous transversely isotropic material, and the FEM analysis for the reinforced concrete beams is conducted with the USDFLD subroutine. Considering the concrete cracking and interfacial debonding, the macroscopic damage process of the reinforced concrete beam under four-point bending loading in the simulation. The volume fraction of rebar and the cracking degree are mainly discussed to reveal their influence on the macroperformance and they are calibrated with experimental results. Comparing with the bending experiment performed with 8 reinforced concrete beams, the bending stiffness of the second stage and the ultimate load simulated are in good agreement with the experimental values, which verifies the effectiveness and the accuracy of the improved finite element method for reinforced concrete beam.