On tension stiffening in reinforced concrete

Abstract A two phase mixture model for reinforced concrete is presented. The theory is intended to simulate phenomena such as tension stiffening in reinforced concrete members. Simulation capability includes steel-concrete bond degradation and slip, progressive concrete cracking, and nonlinear responses of steel and concrete. The resulting model is applied to the problem of tension stiffening 0of certain reinforced concrete elements and a closed form solution of the mixture relations is obtained for displacement-controlled tension tests. Theory versus experiment comparisons indicate that the mixture concept furnishes a capability to accurately mirror complex phenomena resulting from both concrete cracking and interface slip.