FE analysis of reinforced concrete corbels with enhanced continuum models

The paper presents quasi-static FE-simulations of the behaviour of short reinforced concrete corbels with and without shear reinforcement. Concrete was modelled with the aid of three various constitutive continuum models: an isotropic elasto-plastic, an isotropic damage and an anisotropic smeared crack approach. To ensure the mesh-independent numerical results and to describe strain localization, a characteristic length of micro-structure was introduced by means of a non-local theory. To simulate the behaviour of reinforcement, an associated elasto-plastic constitutive model with isotropic hardening was assumed. The effects of a characteristic length, bond between concrete and reinforcement, tensile and compressive fracture energy and shear reinforcement on strain localization were carefully investigated. The numerical results were compared with corresponding laboratory tests. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.