Nonlinear analysis of reinforced concrete membrane elements considering tension stiffening

In this paper, a set of recently developed interactive constitutive laws for reinforced concrete is revised. The main improvement is considering the effect of crack inclination angle on the tension-stiffening phenomenon. The influence of reinforcing bars on tensile behavior of concrete after cracking is included as a function of their angle with respect to the tension cracks. To calibrate the parameters of the model, the harmony search meta-heuristic algorithm is used. Furthermore, the experimental load–deformation curves of 13 membrane-reinforced concrete elements, with a wide range of specifications, are compared to the predicted curves obtained by the proposed method. © 2018, Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature.