Refined Simulation of Reinforced Concrete Beam Based on a Hybrid Peridynamic Method

Abstract

Reinforced concrete (RC) structures under earthquake excitation may fail and cause significant casualties and economic losses, highlighting the importance of studying their seismic failure mechanisms. Considering that the commonly used finite element method and discrete element method have inherent limitations, a more efficient meshless method, known as peridynamics (PD), has been proposed and applied in various areas. PD has two types, namely, bond-based peridynamics (BPD) and state-based peridynamics (SPD). BPD is limited by its fixed Poisson’s ratio, while SPD suffers from the zero-energy mode issue. A hybrid peridynamics (HPD) method is introduced in this paper to overcome these limitations, as it establishes bonds between each PD point and other PD points within its horizon and sums up all bond forces on the PD point to calculate the total force. The proposed HPD method is then applied to simulate three RC beams with different shear span-to-depth ratios. The simulation results, including the shear force–deflection of the beams, shear force–strain of stirrups, crack formation and propagation, and diagonal crack width, are compared against experimental data. The proposed HPD method is demonstrated as being capable of simulating RC structures’ behaviors in an accurate and stable manner.