ANALYSIS OF PRE-TENSIONED STRUCTURES BY MEANS OF A CONSTITUTIVE SERIAL-PARALLEL RULE OF MIXTURES

L. BARBU; C. ESCUDERO; X. MARTINEZ; S. OLLER; A. BARBAT

Congreso; XIV International Conference on Computational Plasticity. Fundamentals and Applications; 2017

The main purpose of this paper is to develop a reliable method based on a threedimensional(3D) finite-element (FE) model to simulate the constitutive behaviour of reinforcedconcrete structures strengthened with post-tensioned tendons. A 3D FE model was used, wherethe nonlinear material behaviour and geometrical analysis based on incremental?iterative loadmethods were adopted. The pre-tensioned concrete is modelled as a composite material whosebehaviour is described with the serial-parallel rule of mixtures (S/P RoM) [1-3]. The effectivepre-tensioning stress was applied as an initial strain imposition in the steel material used tomodel the tendons. The methodology is valid for both straight and curvilinear steel tendons.Examples of both cases will be shown. Validation by comparison with the analytic solution isdone for the case of a concrete beam with a straight pre-tensioned steel tendon embedded. Otherexamples are also included.