DOI 10.4010/2016.

1026
ISSN 2321 3361 © 2016 IJESC

Research Article Volume 6 Issue No. 4

Elastic-Plastic Analysis of Concrete Beams Using Finite Element

Code, Abaqus
Dalia S.M.1, Sanad A.M.2, Moussa M.A.3
M.Sc. Student, Construction & Building Engineering Department, Arab Academy for Science & Technology, Cairo, Egypt 1
Professor of Structural Engineering, Construction & Building Engineering Department, Arab Academy for Science &
Technology, Cairo, Egypt2
Assistant Professor of Materials Engineering, Civil Engineering Department, El-Shorouk High Engineering Institute, Cairo,
Egypt3

Abstract:
Concrete is considered the main building materials used in the main skeleton of many structures around the world. The response
of a reinforced concrete structure is determined by the material response of the plain concrete of which it is composed. This study
aimed to develop a stable finite element procedure to follow the deterioration of concrete after the cracking phase. The behavior
of reinforced concrete is nonlinear and very complex. This leads to difficulties in accurate simulation and modelling of reinforced
concrete members. In this paper a 3D model of a concrete beam is prepared and loaded in a four point loading test. Several
approaches are used for concrete material definition based on the findings of previous researchers. A comparison between the
concrete damage plasticity and the tension stiffening options in ABAQUS is evaluated and discussed, in addition to a material
definition based on actual stress-strain results of concrete cylinders tested in axial compression. The two models showed
behaviors that accurately resemble the behavior of actual concrete beams in both elastic and plastic zones. The concrete damage
plasticity was capable of determining both compression and tension damage showing cracked elements in tension and crushed
elements in compression. The concrete tension stiffening showed great success in defining the tensile post-cracking behavior of
concrete. The two models showed that the primary mechanism of response in concrete is the development and propagation of
discrete cracks.

Keywords: ABAQUS, Concrete damaged plasticity, Finite element, Non-linear analysis, Reinforced concrete, Tension stiffening.

I. INTRODUCTION interlocks and dowel action of reinforcement, time dependent

Reinforced concrete is a very complicated material to be
modelled using finite element soft-wares. A reinforced concrete
model must be capable of representing both elastic and plastic
behavior of concrete. Since 1970, analyses of reinforced
concrete structures using finite element method, have witnessed
a remarkable advancement. Many researchers have made
valuable contributions in understanding the behavior of
concrete and have developed sophisticated methods of analysis
[1].
When concrete is subjected to compressive stresses,
experimental results have indicated that the nonlinear
deformations of concrete are basically inelastic because upon
unloading only a portion of those strains can be recovered from
the total strains [2]. Therefore, the stress-strain behavior of the
concrete material may be separated into recoverable and non-
recoverable components. The recoverable part can be treated
within the field of elasticity theory, while the irrecoverable part
can be treated by the theory of plasticity [3].
The complex behavior of concrete sets some limitations in
implementing FEM [4]. The complexity is mainly due to non-
linear stress-strain relation of the concrete under multi-axial
stress conditions, strain softening and anisotropic stiffness
reduction, progressive cracking caused by tensile stresses and
strains, bond between concrete and reinforcement, aggregate
behavior as creep and shrinkage [4].
Modelling of concrete in tension has been a huge challenge
due to cracks propagation and large displacement obtained for
small load increment. Several ways to overcome the challenge
have been tried by many researchers modelling concrete
structures. Discrete and smeared approaches have been tried to
model the concrete damage and crack phases. For this paper; an
adaptable stable model for modelling plain concrete is
proposed, which overcomes numerical problems arising from
large displacement during cracks initiation and propagation.
II. FINITE ELEMENT CODE ABAQUS
Several researchers have documented about non-linear analysis
of reinforced concrete and pre-stressed concrete structures. For
non-linear analysis many commercial software are available,
such as ANSYS, ABAQUS, NASTARAN, and ADINA. All
these soft-wares are not tailor made applications which can
work automatically on just feeding few data and the
requirements [1].
ABAQUS is a complete finite element environment that
provides a simple, consistent interface for creating, submitting,
monitoring, and evaluating results for several finite element
problems. ABAQUS is a suite of powerful engineering
simulation programs, based on the finite element method that
can solve problems ranging from relatively simple linear

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analyses to the most challenging non-linear simulations.
ABAQUS contains an extensive library of elements that can
model virtually any geometry. It has an equally extensive list of
material models that can simulate the behavior of most typical
engineering materials including metals, rubber, polymers,
composites, reinforced concrete, crushable and resilient foams,
and geotechnical materials such as soils and rock. Designed as
general-purpose simulation tool, ABAQUS can be used to
study more than just structural (stress/displacement) problems.
ABAQUS offers a wide range of capabilities for simulation of
linear and non-linear applications. Problems with multiple
components are modelled by associating the geometry defining
each component with the appropriate material models and
specifying component interactions. In a non-linear analysis
ABAQUS automatically chooses appropriate load increments
and convergence tolerances and continually adjusts them during
the analysis to ensure that an accurate solution is obtained
efficiently [5].
III. 3D FINITE ELEMENT MODEL
A concrete beam of size 150x150x750 mm is modelled in
ABAQUS using C3D8R elements. Two steel rollers are used as
lower supports and another two are used for loading the beam
in a four-point loading test. The rollers are also modelled using
C3D8R elements. The concrete has a compressive strength of
25 MPa, and the steel rollers are of grade 240/350. Figures 1
and 2 show a schematic of the loading set-up and the assembly
of the model in ABAQUS 6.14 respectively.
IV. MATERIAL DEFINITION
Plasticity-based models have been used extensively in the
previous years to describe the behavior of concrete. In general,
models based on the theory of plasticity describe concrete as an
elastic-perfectly plastic material [6], or, to account for the
hardening behavior up to the ultimate strength, as an elastic
strain-hardening plastic material [7]. Several aspects must be
specified in order to apply the incremental theory of elastic
strain-hardening plasticity [3]. These include:
 The yield function that defines the initial and
subsequent yield surfaces
 The hardening rules that describe the motion of the
subsequent yield surface during continuous loading.
FIGURE 1
SCHEMATIC DIAGRAM OF THE FOUR-POINT LOADING TEST
SET-UP
International Journal of Engineering Science and Computing, April 2016
 The flow rules that relate the plastic strain increments
to stress increments
 The equivalent uniaxial stress-strain curve.
The plastic hardening modulus, In this study four methods
are presented to define the plastic portion of the stress-strain
curve of concrete: (1) Hsu and Hsu numerical compression
stress-strain model; (2) Modified Nayal and Rasheed’s
tension stiffening model; (3) Chaudhari et. al. model; and
(4) actual concrete cylinders experimental stress-strain
results.
A. Hsu and Hsu numerical compression stress-strain model
The complete stress-strain curve for concrete under
compression is derived using the experimentally verified
numerical method by Hsu and Hsu [8]. Figure 3 defines the
ultimate compressive stress (σcu), strain at σcu (ε0) and the strain
corresponding to the stress at 0.3 σcu in the descending portion
(εd). A linear stress-strain relationship which obey Hooke’s law
is assumed up to 50% of the ultimate compressive strength in
the ascending portion. The numerical model by Hsu and Hsu is
used only to calculate the compressive stress values between
the yield point (at 0.5 σcu) and the 0.3 σcu in the descending
portion using (1):
Where, the parameters β and ε0 can be derived from (2) and (3)
respectively:
The initial tangential modulus, E0 is given by (4):
Note: in the above equations, σc, σcu and E0 are in kip/in2
(Conversion factor: 1MPa = 0.145037743 kip/in2).
By applying the previous numerical equations on the 25
MPa strength concrete used in the presented ABAQUS model,
one can get the stress-strain relationship shown in Figure 4.
FIGURE 2
THE 3D MODEL ASSEMBLY IN ABAQUS 6.14
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B. Modified Nayal and Rasheed’s tension stiffening model
The model developed by Nayal and Rasheed [9] is applicable
for both reinforced and fiber reinforced concrete with only
minor changes, also, this method indicates similarity to the
tension stiffening model that is needed for ABAQUS concrete
damaged plasticity model. The Nayal and Rasheed’s tension
stiffening model for reinforced concrete elements is shown in
Figure 5 and a modified tension stiffening model by
Wahalathantri et. al. [10] is presented in Figure 6.
Two modifications are shown in the modified model [10]:
 The sudden drop at critical tensile strain ε cr from
maximum tensile stress σt0 to 0.8 σt0 as used by Nayal
and Rasheed, is slanted to 1.25 εcr and 0.77 σt0 to avoid
run time errors in ABAQUS material model.
 After this point the stress-strain curve follows exactly
the Nayal and Rasheed’s model in both primary and
secondary cracking regions but stopped at 8.7 εcr and
0.10 σt0 to avoid ABAQUS run time errors.
By applying the Wahalathantri modified tension stiffening
model on the 25 MPa strength concrete used in the presented
FIGURE 3
COMPRESSIVE STRESS-STRAIN RELATIONSHIP, (HSU AND HSU,
1994)
FIGURE 5
NAYAL AND RASHEED’S TENSION STIFFENING MODEL (2006)
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ABAQUS model, one can get the tensile stress-strain
relationship shown in Figure 7.
C. Chaudhari et. al. model
Two models were proposed by Chaudhari [1]:
 The smeared crack concrete model, and
 Concrete damaged plasticity model.
In the smeared crack concrete model the initiation of
cracking process at any location happens when the concrete
stresses reach one of the failure surfaces either in the biaxial
tension region or in a combined tension-compression region
[11]. The concrete model is a smeared crack model in the sense
that it does not track individual “macro” cracks. Cracking is
assumed to occur when the stress reaches a failure surface
which is called the “crack detection” surface. Once the crack
occurs ABAQUS uses a smeared crack approach in which
constitutive calculations are performed independently at each
integration point of the finite element model, and the presence
of cracks enters into these calculations by the way the cracks
affect the stress and material stiffness associated with
integration points. The cracking and compressive responses that
were included in the concrete model are demonstrated by the
uniaxial response of a specimen as shown in Figure 8.
FIGURE 4
25 MPA COMPRESSIVE STRESS-STRAIN CURVE
FIGURE 6
MODIFIED TENSION STIFFENING MODEL BY WAHALATHANTRI
ET. AL. (2011)
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FIGURE 7
25 MPA TENSILE STRESS-STRAIN CURVE
D. Experimental stress-strain results
Six concrete cylinders with 25 MPa characteristic strength
(diameter = 150mm x height = 300mm) were cast and tested
in standard compression test and the results for stress-strain
relationships were recorded and plotted. Three cylinders were
tested in order to get the compressive strength according to
the ASTM-C39/C39M, and the other three were tested in
compression with a compressometer mounted on the
cylinders perimeter in order to plot the stress-strain relations
according to ASTM-C469/C469M as shown in Figure 9. The
resulted compressive stress-strain curves are shown in Figure
10.
I. MODEL ANALYSIS
In this study the 3D model is tested using the compression
stress-strain results of the tested cylinders. The tensile
behavior is modelled using the modified tension stiffening
model by Wahalathantri [10].
FIGURE 8
UNIAXIAL BEHAVIOR OF PLAIN CONCRETE [BAI ET AL., 2013]
In this model; the concrete plastic behavior is defined using
the *Concrete Damaged Plasticity option in ABAQUS.
Results of the stress-strain relationships according to the
actual values of the compressive stress-strain test on the
standard concrete cylinders as shown before in Figure 10 are
entered in a sub-option called *Concrete Compression
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Hardening. The plastic tensile behavior is defined using the
modified Nayal and Rasheed’s model [10] and the sub-option
*Concrete Tension Stiffening is used to define this behavior.
FIGURE 9
A STANDARD COMPRESSOMETER MOUNTED ON A STANDARD
CONCRETE CYLINDER
The concrete tensile strength is assumed to be 10% of the
compressive strength, and strain at crack is calculated by
dividing the maximum tensile stress by the modulus of
elasticity. The rest of the tensile stress-strain values are
entered according to what was mentioned in Figure 7.
Figure 11 shows the propagation of tensile stresses from
initial loading till the end of the analysis. Figure 12 shows the
cracking elements in the beam located at the area of the
maximum moment. The stress-strain behavior of the cracked
element through the whole loading period is shown in Figure
13. The elements behave elastically till reaching 2.5 MPa and
then exhibits a softening stage as the strain reaches the
cracking strain.
FIGURE 10
EXPERIMENTAL 25 MPA COMPRESSIVE STRESS-STRAIN
CURVES FOR THREE STANDARD CYLINDERS
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 FIGURE 11
S,S33 CONTOURS AT 1%, 30%, AND 100% OF LOADING INCREMENTS USING THE STANDARD CYLINDERS STRESS-STRAIN
RESULTS
FIGURE 12
ELEMENTS FAILED IN TENSION AT THE END OF THE ANALYSIS
USING THE STANDARD CYLINDERS STRESS-STRAIN RESULTS
II. CONCLUSIONS
Two models were tested to show the behavior of concrete in
both elastic and plastic stages. The difference between the
two models was the values entered to simulate the concrete
compression behavior. The first was the numerical
compression model proposed by Nayal and Rasheed, and
modified by Wahalathantri et. al., and the second one used
actual tested results of standard concrete cylinders. The two
models showed very close behaviors. The concrete damaged
plasticity model can be considered one of the best options in
ABAQUS to accurately simulate the crack initiation and
propagation in concrete. Following are the conclusions
resulted from this study:
 A stable approach for modelling plain concrete has
been presented.
 The approach allows the modelling of concrete
structure under compression, tension and bending.
 The smeared damage approach overcomes numerical
divergences and instability due to large cracks
initiation and propagation.
 It’s based on ductile compression model combined
with an adapted stiffness tension stress- strain
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FIGURE 13
ABAQUS STRESS-STRAIN OUTPUT FOR ELEMENTS LOCATED
IN THE TENSILE ZONE USING THE STANDARD CYLINDERS
STRESS-STRAIN RESULTS
relationship. It allows for local damage zone .it
unload smoothly while respecting the overall
structure equilibrium.
 A challenging theoretical application of modelling a
plain concrete beam under four point loading has
been experimented using the above approach, where
it showed a stable numerical analysis and followed
the beam behavior showing the propagation of
damaged zones during loading.
 It can be used to model different types of RC
structures.
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[2] Bai, Y., Dai, J., and Teng, J. (2013). “Cyclic
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Modeling of Concrete by Using Non-associated Plasticity”, The research described in this paper was financially
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering, Vol. 1, No. 4, supported by the Construction and Building Department,
ISSN 0899-1561/89/0004-0199, Paper No. 24059, College of Engineering, Arab Academy for Science,
Available: http://140.116.36.16/paper/j01.pdf Technology, & Maritime Transport, Cairo branch, Egypt.

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