Nonlinear cyclic behavior of 2D complex RC structures by a plastic-damage concrete model with smeared reinforcement approach

In this work the damage model developed by authors for RC membrane elements is presented and discussed. In particular, the consequences of simplifying assumptions on the accuracy of the numerical results are deeply investigated referring to an extensive set of numerical simulations. Numerical results are compared with experimental data of monotonic and cyclic inelastic tests under uniform and non-uniform stress distributions, including also the hysteretic response of shear critical members. The performed analyses demonstrate a proper numerical robustness associated with a significant computational efficiency, essential features to perform large scale simulations of shear critical RC structures.