A numerical investigation of the cracking behaviour of reinforced-concrete tie elements

Abstract

The cracking behaviours of reinforced-concrete (RC) ties are investigated by conducting virtual experiments using non-linear finite-element analysis. The assumptions in the model are verified by benchmarking the classical experiments of B. Bresler and V. V. Bertero as conducted in 1968 and P. J. Yannopoulos, conducted in 1989, which shows good agreement in the comparison of steel strains, development of crack widths and crack spacing. Furthermore, virtual experiments on four different RC ties show that the size of the cover and not the bar diameter governs the crack spacing and thus implicitly the crack width. An increase of the bar diameter has a beneficial effect in reducing the steel stress and the associated steel strains, which in turn reduces the crack width. Finally, a single bond–slip curve is sufficient in describing the average bond transfer of an arbitrary RC tie.