Plate formulation based on the strong discontinuity method for reinforced concrete components subjected to seismic loadings

Abstract : Damage models, developed in the last decades, insure a continuum descriptionof the fracture process zone in quasi-brittle materials but fail at representing neinformation of the cracking features such as openings and spacings. Recently, the conceptof displacement discontinuities embedded into a standard finite element has been provedto be effcient in modeling fracture of quasi-brittle materials. The present paper aims atcapturing crack openings in a natural way by using the Strong Discontinuity Approach(SDA). This later is coupled with a continuous anisotropic damage model accounting fordifferent crack orientations and crack closure effects. A regularized version of the Diracdistribution and the hardening parameter allows for the establishment of an enrichedmodel compatible with the continuous one. Numerical simulations at the integrationpoint level and a three-point bending test carried out on a single edge notched beam showthe performances of the model.