Softened Variable Angle Truss Model (RA-STM): Model Description and Refinement/Optimization Proposals

This article presents a recent softened truss model with variable angle, namely the refined RA-STM (Rotating-Angle Softened Truss Model), to model the behaviour of structural concrete plates under pure shear.  The equations of the model, as well as the solution procedure, are summarized. Some predictions from the RA-STM are also presented, discussed and compared with experimental results available in the literature. It is shown that the refined RA-STM still needs to be refined. In addition, the need to generalize the RA-STM for more general loading cases is also discussed as well as the need to optimize the solution procedure in order to facilitate its computational implementation.