4.5.

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4.5.2 Damaged plasticity model for concrete and other quasi-brittle materials

Products: Abaqus/Standard  Abaqus/Explicit  

This section describes the concrete damaged plasticity model provided in Abaqus for the analysis of
concrete and other quasi-brittle materials. The material library in Abaqus also includes other
constitutive models for concrete based on the smeared crack approach. These are the smeared crack
model in Abaqus/Standard, described in “An inelastic constitutive model for concrete,” Section
4.5.1, and the brittle cracking model in Abaqus/Explicit, described in “A cracking model for
concrete and other brittle materials,” Section 4.5.3.

The concrete damaged plasticity model is primarily intended to provide a general capability for the
analysis of concrete structures under cyclic and/or dynamic loading. The model is also suitable for
the analysis of other quasi-brittle materials, such as rock, mortar and ceramics; but it is the behavior
of concrete that is used in the remainder of this section to motivate different aspects of the
constitutive theory. Under low confining pressures, concrete behaves in a brittle manner; the main
failure mechanisms are cracking in tension and crushing in compression. The brittle behavior of
concrete disappears when the confining pressure is sufficiently large to prevent crack propagation.
In these circumstances failure is driven by the consolidation and collapse of the concrete
microporous microstructure, leading to a macroscopic response that resembles that of a ductile
material with work hardening.

Modeling the behavior of concrete under large hydrostatic pressures is out of the scope of the
plastic-damage model considered here. The constitutive theory in this section aims to capture the
effects of irreversible damage associated with the failure mechanisms that occur in concrete and
other quasi-brittle materials under fairly low confining pressures (less than four or five times the
ultimate compressive stress in uniaxial compression loading). These effects manifest themselves in
the following macroscopic properties:

 different yield strengths in tension and compression, with the initial yield stress in
compression being a factor of 10 or more higher than the initial yield stress in tension;

 softening behavior in tension as opposed to initial hardening followed by softening in

compression;

 different degradation of the elastic stiffness in tension and compression;

 stiffness recovery effects during cyclic loading; and

 rate sensitivity, especially an increase in the peak strength with strain rate.

The plastic-damage model in Abaqus is based on the models proposed by Lubliner et al. (1989) and
by Lee and Fenves (1998). The model is described in the remainder of this section. An overview of
the main ingredients of the model is given first, followed by a more detailed discussion of the
different aspects of the constitutive model.

Overview

The main ingredients of the inviscid concrete damaged plasticity model are summarized below.

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Strain rate decomposition

An additive strain rate decomposition is assumed for the rate-independent model:

where is the total strain rate, is the elastic part of the strain rate, and is the plastic part of the
strain rate.

Stress-strain relations

The stress-strain relations are governed by scalar damaged elasticity:

where is the initial (undamaged) elastic stiffness of the material; is the

degraded elastic stiffness; and d is the scalar stiffness degradation variable, which can take values in
the range from zero (undamaged material) to one (fully damaged material). Damage associated with
the failure mechanisms of the concrete (cracking and crushing) therefore results in a reduction in the
elastic stiffness. Within the context of the scalar-damage theory, the stiffness degradation is
isotropic and characterized by a single degradation variable, d. Following the usual notions of
continuum damage mechanics, the effective stress is defined as

The Cauchy stress is related to the effective stress through the scalar degradation relation:

For any given cross-section of the material, the factor represents the ratio of the effective
load-carrying area (i.e., the overall area minus the damaged area) to the overall section area. In the
absence of damage, , the effective stress is equivalent to the Cauchy stress, . When
damage occurs, however, the effective stress is more representative than the Cauchy stress because
it is the effective stress area that is resisting the external loads. It is, therefore, convenient to
formulate the plasticity problem in terms of the effective stress. As discussed later, the evolution of
the degradation variable is governed by a set of hardening variables, , and the effective stress;
that is, .

Hardening variables

Damaged states in tension and compression are characterized independently by two hardening
variables, and , which are referred to as equivalent plastic strains in tension and compression,
respectively. The evolution of the hardening variables is given by an expression of the form

as described later in this section.

Microcracking and crushing in the concrete are represented by increasing values of the hardening
variables. These variables control the evolution of the yield surface and the degradation of the
elastic stiffness. They are also intimately related to the dissipated fracture energy required to

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generate micro-cracks.

Yield function

The yield function, , represents a surface in effective stress space, which determines the
states of failure or damage. For the inviscid plastic-damage model

The specific form of the yield function is described later in this section.

Flow rule

Plastic flow is governed by a flow potential G according to the flow rule:

where is the nonnegative plastic multiplier. The plastic potential is defined in the effective stress
space. The specific form of the flow potential for the concrete damaged plasticity model is
discussed later in this section. The model uses nonassociated plasticity, therefore requiring the
solution of nonsymmetric equations.

Summary

In summary, the elastic-plastic response of the concrete damaged plasticity model is described in
terms of the effective stress and the hardening variables:

where and F obey the Kuhn-Tucker conditions: The Cauchy stress is

calculated in terms of the stiffness degradation variable, , and the effective stress as

The constitutive relations for the elastic-plastic response, Equation 4.5.2–1, are decoupled from the
stiffness degradation response, Equation 4.5.2–2, which makes the model attractive for an effective
numerical implementation. The inviscid model summarized here can be extended easily to account
for viscoplastic effects through the use of a viscoplastic regularization by permitting stresses to be
outside the yield surface.

Damage and stiffness degradation

The evolution equations of the hardening variables and are conveniently formulated by
considering uniaxial loading conditions first and then extended to multiaxial conditions.

Uniaxial conditions

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It is assumed that the uniaxial stress-strain curves can be converted into stress versus plastic strain
curves of the form

where the subscripts t and c refer to tension and compression, respectively; and are the
equivalent plastic strain rates, and are the equivalent plastic strains,
is the temperature, and are other predefined field variables.

Under uniaxial loading conditions the effective plastic strain rates are given as

In the remainder of this section we adopt the convention that is a positive quantity representing
the magnitude of the uniaxial compression stress; that is, .

As shown in Figure 4.5.2–1, when the concrete specimen is unloaded from any point on the strain
softening branch of the stress-strain curves, the unloading response is observed to be weakened: the
elastic stiffness of the material appears to be damaged (or degraded). The degradation of the elastic
stiffness is significantly different between tension and compression tests; in either case, the effect is
more pronounced as the plastic strain increases. The degraded response of concrete is characterized
by two independent uniaxial damage variables, and , which are assumed to be functions of the
plastic strains, temperature, and field variables:

Figure 4.5.2–1 Response of concrete to uniaxial loading in tension (a) and compression (b).

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The uniaxial degradation variables are increasing functions of the equivalent plastic strains. They
can take values ranging from zero, for the undamaged material, to one, for the fully damaged
material.

If is the initial (undamaged) elastic stiffness of the material, the stress-strain relations under
uniaxial tension and compression loading are, respectively:

Under uniaxial loading cracks propagate in a direction transverse to the stress direction. The
nucleation and propagation of cracks, therefore, causes a reduction of the available load-carrying
area, which in turn leads to an increase in the effective stress. The effect is less pronounced under
compressive loading since cracks run parallel to the loading direction; however, after a significant

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amount of crushing, the effective load-carrying area is also significantly reduced. The effective
uniaxial cohesion stresses, and , are given as

The effective uniaxial cohesion stresses determine the size of the yield (or failure) surface.

Uniaxial cyclic conditions

Under uniaxial cyclic loading conditions the degradation mechanisms are quite complex, involving
the opening and closing of previously formed micro-cracks, as well as their interaction.
Experimentally, it is observed that there is some recovery of the elastic stiffness as the load changes
sign during a uniaxial cyclic test. The stiffness recovery effect, also known as the “unilateral effect,”
is an important aspect of the concrete behavior under cyclic loading. The effect is usually more
pronounced as the load changes from tension to compression, causing tensile cracks to close, which
results in the recovery of the compressive stiffness.

The concrete damaged plasticity model assumes that the reduction of the elastic modulus is given in
terms of a scalar degradation variable, d, as

where is the initial (undamaged) modulus of the material.

This expression holds both in the tensile ( ) and compressive ( ) sides of the cycle.
The stiffness reduction variable, d, is a function of the stress state and the uniaxial damage
variables, and . For the uniaxial cyclic conditions, Abaqus assumes that

where and are functions of the stress state that are introduced to represent stiffness recovery
effects associated with stress reversals. They are defined according to

where

The weight factors and , which are assumed to be material properties, control the recovery of
the tensile and compressive stiffness upon load reversal. To illustrate this, consider the example in
Figure 4.5.2–2, where the load changes from tension to compression. Assume that there was no
previous compressive damage (crushing) in the material; that is, and . Then

Figure 4.5.2–2 Illustration of the effect of the compression stiffness recovery parameter .

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In tension ( ), ; thus, as expected. In compression ( ), , and

. If , then ; therefore, the material fully recovers the compressive
stiffness (which in this case is the initial undamaged stiffness, ). If, on the other hand,
, then and there is no stiffness recovery. Intermediate values of result in partial
recovery of the stiffness.

The evolution equations of the equivalent plastic strains are also generalized to the uniaxial cyclic
conditions as

which clearly reduces to Equation 4.5.2–4 during the tensile and compressive phases of the cycle.

Multiaxial conditions

The evolution equations for the hardening variables must be extended for the general multiaxial
conditions. Based on Lee and Fenves (1998) we assume that the equivalent plastic strain rates are
evaluated according to the expressions

where and are, respectively, the maximum and minimum eigenvalues of the plastic strain
rate tensor and

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is a stress weight factor that is equal to one if all principal stresses , are positive and
equal to zero if they are negative. The Macauley bracket is defined by . In
uniaxial loading conditions Equation 4.5.2–8 reduces to the uniaxial definitions Equation 4.5.2–4
and Equation 4.5.2–7, since in tension, and in compression.

If the eigenvalues of the plastic strain rate tensor ( ) are ordered such that
, the evolution equation for general multiaxial stress conditions can
be expressed in the following matrix form:

where

and

Elastic stiffness degradation

The plastic-damage concrete model assumes that the elastic stiffness degradation is isotropic and
characterized by a single scalar variable, d:

The definition of the scalar degradation variable d must be consistent with the uniaxial monotonic
responses ( and ), and it should also should capture the complexity associated with the
degradation mechanisms under cyclic loading. For the general multiaxial stress conditions Abaqus
assumes that

similar to the uniaxial cyclic case, only that and are now given in terms of the function as

It can be easily verified that Equation 4.5.2–10 for the scalar degradation variable is consistent with
the uniaxial response.

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The experimental observation in most quasi-brittle materials, including concrete, is that the
compressive stiffness is recovered upon crack closure as the load changes from tension to
compression. On the other hand, the tensile stiffness is not recovered as the load changes from
compression to tension once crushing micro-cracks have developed. This behavior, which
corresponds to and , is the default used by Abaqus. Figure 4.5.2–3 illustrates a
uniaxial load cycle assuming the default behavior.

Figure 4.5.2–3 Uniaxial load cycle (tension-compression-tension) assuming default values for the
stiffness recovery factors: and .

Yield condition

The plastic-damage concrete model uses a yield condition based on the yield function proposed by
Lubliner et al. (1989) and incorporates the modifications proposed by Lee and Fenves (1998) to
account for different evolution of strength under tension and compression. In terms of effective
stresses the yield function takes the form

where and are dimensionless material constants;

is the effective hydrostatic pressure;

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is the Mises equivalent effective stress;

is the deviatoric part of the effective stress tensor ; and is the algebraically maximum
eigenvalue of . The function is given as

where and are the effective tensile and compressive cohesion stresses, respectively.

In biaxial compression, with , Equation 4.5.2–11 reduces to the well-known Drucker-

Prager yield condition. The coefficient can be determined from the initial equibiaxial and uniaxial
compressive yield stress, and , as

Typical experimental values of the ratio for concrete are in the range from 1.10 to 1.16,
yielding values of between 0.08 and 0.12 (Lubliner et al., 1989).

The coefficient enters the yield function only for stress states of triaxial compression, when
This coefficient can be determined by comparing the yield conditions along the tensile
and compressive meridians. By definition, the tensile meridian (TM) is the locus of stress states
satisfying the condition and the compressive meridian (CM) is the locus of
stress states such that , where , , and are the eigenvalues of the
effective stress tensor. It can be easily shown that and
, along the tensile and compressive meridians, respectively. With
the corresponding yield conditions are

Let for any given value of the hydrostatic pressure with ; then

The fact that is constant does not seem to be contradicted by experimental evidence (Lubliner et
al., 1989). The coefficient is, therefore, evaluated as

A value of , which is typical for concrete, gives

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If , the yield conditions along the tensile and compressive meridians reduce to

Let for any given value of the hydrostatic pressure with ; then

Typical yield surfaces are shown in Figure 4.5.2–4 in the deviatoric plane and in Figure 4.5.2–5 for
plane-stress conditions.

Figure 4.5.2–4 Yield surfaces in the deviatoric plane, corresponding to different values of .

Figure 4.5.2–5 Yield surface in plane stress.

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Flow rule

The plastic-damage model assumes nonassociated potential flow,

The flow potential G chosen for this model is the Drucker-Prager hyperbolic function:

where is the dilation angle measured in the p–q plane at high confining pressure; is the
uniaxial tensile stress at failure; and is a parameter, referred to as the eccentricity, that defines the
rate at which the function approaches the asymptote (the flow potential tends to a straight line as the
eccentricity tends to zero). This flow potential, which is continuous and smooth, ensures that the
flow direction is defined uniquely. The function asymptotically approaches the linear Drucker-
Prager flow potential at high confining pressure stress and intersects the hydrostatic pressure axis at
90°. See “Models for granular or polymer behavior,” Section 4.4.2, for further discussion of this
potential.

Because plastic flow is nonassociated, the use of the plastic-damage concrete model requires the
solution of nonsymmetric equations.

Viscoplastic regularization

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Material models exhibiting softening behavior and stiffness degradation often lead to severe
convergence difficulties in implicit analysis programs. Some of these convergence difficulties can
be overcome by using a viscoplastic regularization of the constitutive equations. The concrete
damaged plasticity model can be regularized using viscoplasticity, therefore permitting stresses to
be outside of the yield surface. We use a generalization of the Duvaut-Lions regularization,
according to which the viscoplastic strain rate tensor, , is defined as

Here is the viscosity parameter representing the relaxation time of the viscoplastic system and
is the plastic strain evaluated in the inviscid backbone model.

Similarly, a viscous stiffness degradation variable, , for the viscoplastic system is defined as

where d is the degradation variable evaluated in the inviscid backbone model. The stress-strain
relation of the viscoplastic model is given as

The solution of the viscoplastic system relaxes to that of the inviscid case as , where t
represents time. Using the viscoplastic regularization with a small value for the viscosity parameter
(small compared to the characteristic time increment) usually helps improve the rate of convergence
of the model in the softening regime, without compromising results.

Integration of the model

The model is integrated using the backward Euler method generally used with the plasticity models
in Abaqus. A material Jacobian consistent with this integration operator is used for the equilibrium
iterations.

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