Limit state evaluation of steel-reinforced concrete elements by von-Mises and Menétrey-Willam-type yield criteria

An advanced version of a recently developed numerical limit analysis procedure for the prediction of peak loads and failure modes of steel-reinforced concrete (RC) elements is proposed. The modified procedure allows to take into account possible yielding of reinforcement so capturing the actual behaviour at collapse of both steel and concrete. This implies a FE modelling of the RC elements in which concrete is governed by a Menétrey Willam-type yield criterion, with cap in compression, while steel bars are governed by a von Mises yield criterion. The peak load of a wide range of RC structures whose behaviour at ultimate state is dominated either by the concrete crushing or by the steel bars yielding is then predicted with a very good accuracy.