A refined diffuse cohesive approach for the failure analysis in quasibrittle materials—part II: Application to plain and reinforced concrete structures

This work presents the numerical application of the diffuse cohesive interface model introduced in the Part I paper to the failure analysis of plain and reinforced concrete structures, subjected to complex loading conditions, inducing mixed-mode fracture initiation and propagation. With the aim of capturing the interaction between concrete and steel reinforcements, the adopted fracture model is incorporated in a novel, more general numerical framework for the nonlinear analysis of reinforced concrete structures. Such a framework includes a newly proposed embedded truss model for the reinforcing bars, allowing them to be crossed by the neighboring propagating cracks. Comparisons with available experimental results are provided, assessing the reliability and the numerical accuracy of the proposed concrete model, with reference to plain specimens subjected to single-crack propagation as well as to reinforced elements subjected to multiple cracking.