Sequentially linear analysis of shear critical reinforced concrete beams without shear reinforcement

Analyzing brittle structures with nonlinear finite element analysis is frequently attended with numerical problems. As an alternative method sequentially linear analysis could be utilized, resulting in the avoidance of convergence and bifurcation problems. To demonstrate its attractiveness, sequentially linear analyses are performed on a tested shear critical reinforced concrete beam without shear reinforcement. These beams are generally known to behave extremely brittle and therefore difficult to analyze with standard nonlinear finite element analysis. The results of the alternative method are presented in this study and compared with the results of corresponding nonlinear analyses using an incremental-iterative solution procedure. Sensitivity studies have been performed with respect to the adopted amount of material fracture energy, the number of damage increments in the discretized stress – strain curve, the shear retention after cracking, mesh refinement and mesh alignment, and the possibility of non-symmetric failure modes. The comparisons between numerical and experimental results show that the alternative method is able to simulate the brittle failure behavior of the beam properly.