Curved beam element for analysis of reinforced concrete arch structures

Abstract

Curved structures are interest of many researchers. A vast number of curved beam elements have been developed since 1990s. One of the most exact and efficient curved beam elements will be developed for material nonlinear analysis in this paper. Material nonlinearity due to the cracking of concrete and yielding of reinforcing bars is taken into account. The layered section approach assumes uniaxial stress-strain relation of the particular material in each layer and a perfect bond between the reinforcing steel and concrete. Iterations using the bisection method are employed to determine the neutral axis. Comparisons of results from the present curved beam element with test results and other solutions demonstrate that this curved beam element can provide accurate predictions for ultimate load and load-deflection behavior of reinforced concrete curved structures.