An elasto-plastic damage constitutive model for concrete and its application for reinforced concrete plate and shell

This paper presents a three-dimensional elasto-plastic damage constitutive model for concrete and its application. In the damage constitutive model, a semi-theoretical strength criterion for concrete proposed by the authors is employed to govern the elastic limit and ultimate strength (plastic limit) envelopes. Beyond the ultimate strength, the behaviour is described with different damage scalars in the respective principal stress directions to simulate stress-induced anisotropy. The pre-damage behaviour of concrete is assumed to be isotropic elasto-plastic hardening. Application of this damage constitutive model with the finite-element method to various reinforced concrete plates and a shell is attempted. Generally, the results from the finite-element simulation with the present constitutive damage model agree well with published experimental results. Both the overall response and the local behaviour, and in particular the ultimate load-carrying capacity and the failure patterns, can be estimated with reasonable accuracy by use of the present constitutive model. The only exception is that the predicted deflections for high-strength slabs are smaller than the experimental counterparts, which implies that the high-strength slabs in the simulation are stiffer than the actual slabs.