Sectional analysis of reinforced concrete members

grantor: University of TorontoFour easy to use programs have been written that allow for state of the art sectional analysis of reinforced concrete blocks, plates, beams, columns and shells. Unlike most sectional analysis programs, these programs include the effects of shear on behaviour. They are based on the assumption that plane sections remain plane, that there is no transverse clamping stress, and that the biaxial behaviour can be modelled well by the Modified Compression Field Theory (MCFT). Each of these assumptions is shown to be reasonable. The programs are freely available on the World Wide Web at the listed addresses: http://www.ecf.utoronto.ca/ ~bentz/m2k.htm Membrane-2000 for plates http://www.ecf.utoronto.ca/ ~bentz/r2k.htm Response-2000 for beams and columns http://www.ecf.utoronto.ca/ ~bentz/t2k.htm Triax-2000 for 3D blocks http://www.ecf.utoronto.ca/ ~bentz/s2k.htm Shell-2000: shells with out-of-plane forces This thesis describes the MCFT in detail as implemented in the programs as well as explaining new constitutive relations employed for the behaviour of concrete in tension. The strongest feature of the new programs is the employment of the longitudinal stiffness method, developed for this thesis, which calculates the shear stress profile for a beam or shell much faster and with more numerical stability than the previous state of the art. The programs are verified against a set of experiments as well as against two new shear experiments performed for this thesis. They indicate the programs are good at predicting the behaviour of the elements. Response-2000 is compared to a database of 534 beams and shown to predict shear strengths with an average experimental over predicted shear strength ratio of 1.05 and with a coefficient of variation of 12%. This compares favourably to the ACI code prediction ratios that have an average of 1.20 and a coefficient of variation of 32%. It is suggested that the programs in this thesis represent a good first step in allowing rational, state of the art computer programs to be directly allowed in the code for elements subjected to shear.Ph.D