Static nonlinear analysis of piles cap based on the Continuum Damage Mechanics

The piles cap is an important structural element whose function is to transfer the actions of the superstructure for a group of piles. The visual inspection of the piles cap behavior under service conditions is not possible and, in addition, the knowledge of its actual structural performance is a vital necessity for the constructions overall stability. In this paper, a two-dimensional nonlinear analysis is carried out, by means of Finite Element Method, of a reinforced concrete pile caps with two piles found in the literature. It adopts for the material concrete a constitutive model based on the Continuum Damage Mechanics, with the possibility to provide a tensile and compression differentiated behavior. The steel is described by an elastoplastic bilinear model. The equilibrium path is achieved by Arc Length iteration technique in association with the Newton - Raphson Method. The numerical results obtained with the developed computational code are compared with the available experimental and numerical results and the analytical solution, and have the objective of evaluate the potential of the proposed modeling as an investigation numerical tool to determine the rupture force and the damage distribution in the piles cap