A numerical model is proposed to study the mechanical behaviour and ductility of reinforced concrete beams in bending. We focus on the experimental results of Weiss, Güler and Shah (2001), where a size effect on the average strain of compressed…
A numerical model is proposed to study the mechanical behaviour and ductility of reinforced concrete beams in bending. We focus on the experimental results of Weiss, Güler and Shah (2001), where a size effect on the average strain of compressed concrete has been measured by changing the distance of ex- ternal loads in four point bending beams. In order to reproduce numerically these results, in the proposed ap- proach the mechanical response of RC beams, and their ductility, are calculated by modelling the progressive crushing of compressed concrete. In particular, a previous model has been extended to reproduce the effects due to different boundary conditions in the tested beams. A good agreement between numerical and experi- mental results has been obtained in the beams with high and low reinforcement ratio, both in the case of high strength concrete (HSC) and normal strength concrete (NSC).