Modeling of the seismic behavior of shear-critical reinforced concrete columns

Inelastic failure of reinforced concrete (RC) structures under seismic loadings can be due either to loss of flexural, shear, or bond capacity. This paper describes the formulation of an inelastic nonlinear beam element with axial, bending, and shear force interaction. The element considers shear deformation and is based on the section discretization into fibers with hysteretic models for the constituent materials. The steel material constitutive law follows the Menegotto–Pinto model. The concrete model is based on a smeared approach of cracked continuous orthotropic concrete with the inclusion of Poisson effect. The concrete model accounts for the biaxial state of stress in the directions of orthotropy in accordance with the Softened Membrane Model, in addition to degradation under reversed cyclic loading. The shear mechanism along the beam is modeled using a Timoshenko beam approach. Transverse strains are internal variables determined by imposing equilibrium between concrete and transverse reinforcements. Element forces are obtained by performing equilibrium based numerical integration on section axial, flexural and shear behaviors along the length of the element. Dynamic behavior was accounted for by adopting the well-known Newmark approach. Rayleigh damping was assumed to simulate the damped behavior under seismic excitations. In order to establish the validity of the proposed model correlation studies were conducted between analytical results and experimental data of RC columns tested under the shake table.