A coupled damage-plasticity model for concrete based on thermodynamic principles: Part II: non-local regularization and numerical implementation

Non-local regularization is applied to a new coupled damage-plasticity model (Int. J. Numer Anal. Meth. Geomech. 2007; DOI: 10.1002/nag.627), turning it into a non-local model. This procedure resolves softening-related problems encountered in local constitutive models when dealing with softening materials. The parameter identification of the new non-local coupled damage-plasticity model is addressed, with all parameters being shown to be obtainable from the experimental data on concrete. Because of the appearance of non-local spatial integrals in the constitutive equations, a new implementation scheme is developed for the integration of the non-local incremental constitutive equations in nonlinear finite element analysis. The performance of the non-local model is assessed against a range of two-dimensional structural tests on concrete, illustrating the stability of the stress update procedure and the lack of mesh dependency of the model. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley and Sons, Ltd