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Nonlinear Analysis of Flanged Reinforced Concrete Beams Using Three-

Dimensional Finite Element Model

Thesis · September 1999

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.25506.99523

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Nonlinear Analysis of Flanged Reinforced
Concrete Beams Using Three-Dimensional
Finite Element Model

A Thesis
Submitted to the College of Engineering at Saddam University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of
Master of Science in Civil Engineering.

By

Hussam Ali Mohammed

(B. Sc. in Civil Engineering (1997))

Jamad Alula 1420

September 1999
 ABSTRACT
Flanged reinforced concrete beams have been widely used in the field of many civil
engineering applications. The behavior of this kind of members has been
investigated both experimentally and analytically. Numerical analysis technique
based on the finite element method has been used in this research work to
investigate the behavior of the flanged reinforced concrete members in the pre and
post-cracking stages of loading and up to ultimate load.
This research work uses a three-dimensional nonlinear finite element model
for the analysis of reinforced concrete flanged beams under flexure. The 20-noded
isoparametric brick element has been used to model the concrete whereas the
reinforcing steel bars are idealized as axial members embedded within the brick
elements. The behavior of concrete in compression is simulated by an elasto-plastic
work-hardening model followed by perfect plastic response, which is terminated at
the onset of crushing. In tension, a smeared crack model with fixed orthogonal
cracks has been used with the inclusion of models for the retained post cracking
stress and the reduced shear modulus.
The nonlinear equations of equilibrium have been solved using an
incremental-iterative technique operating under load control. The solution
algorithms used were the modified Newton-Raphson method. The numerical
integration has been generally conducted using the 27-point Gaussian type rule.
Different types of flanged reinforced concrete beams have been analyzed, and
the finite element solutions were compared with the available experimental and
analytical data. Several parametric studies were conducted, to study the effect of
some important finite element and material parameters. Effect of concrete
compressive strength, amount of reinforcement, and flange thickness and width
have been also investigated. In general good agreement between the finite element
and experimental results has been obtained. The distribution of the longitudinal
concrete compressive stresses, tensile stresses along the steel reinforcement have
been also numerically studied.

B
 Abstract

It is found that for high strength concrete, the ACI Code 318M-95
underestimates the collapse moment of flanged reinforced concrete beams. Also for
beams with wide flanges, the ACI Code formulae seem to be conservative and give
collapse moments appreciably smaller than those obtained from the finite element
analysis.
Flanged reinforced concrete members have also been analyzed during the
elastic stage of behavior and effective flange width has been dealt within this stage.
Also the shear lag effect has been observed in this stage of behavior. In general the
distribution of the longitudinal compressive stresses along the flange width have
been observed to decrease slightly with the distance from flange centerline as found
previously.

C
 CONTENTS
Subject Page
Acknowledgment I
Abstract II
Notation IV
Contents VII

CHAPTER ONE: Introduction

1.1 General 1
1.2 Objective 2
1.3 layout of the Thesis 3

CHAPTER TWO: Literature Review

2.1 Introduction 4
2.2 Effective Width and Shear Lag 6
2.3 Experimental Work on Flanged Beams 10
2.4 Nonlinear Finite Element Analysis of Reinforced concrete 11
Members
2.5 Summary 14

CHAPTER THREE: Constitutive Relationships

3.1 Introduction 16
3.2 The Characteristics of Reinforced Concrete Behavior 16
3.3.1 Uniaxial Behavior of Concrete 17
3.3.2 Multiaxial Behavior of Concrete 19
3.3 Stress-Strain Models 19
3.3.1 Linear Elasticity Models 20
3.3.2 Nonlinear Elasticity Models 21
3.3.3 Perfect Plasticity Models 21
3.3.4 Work-Hardening Plasticity Models 23
3.3.5 Endochronic Theory of Plasticity 25
3.4 Concrete Models Adopted in the Analysis 25

G
 3.4.1 Behavior of Concrete in Compression 26
3.4.1.a Yield Criteria 26
3.4.1.b The Hardening Rule 27
3.4.1.c The Flow Rule 29
3.4.1.d The Crushing Condition 31
3.4.2 Behavior of Concrete in Tension 31
3.4.2.1 Cracking Criterion 31
3.4.2.2 Post-Cracking Models 34
3.4.2.3 Shear Retention Model 35
3.4.3 Reinforcement Modeling 36

CHAPTER FOUR: Finite Element Formulation and

Nonlinear Solution Techniques
4.1 Introduction 37
4.2 Stress-Strain Relationships 38
4.3 Derivation of the Element Stiffness Matrix 39
4.4 Material Representation 41
4.4.1 Concrete Hexahedral Brick Element 41
4.4.2 Embedded Reinforcement Representation 44
4.5 Numerical Integration 47
4.6 Nonlinear Solution Techniques 50
4.7 Solution Techniques for Nonlinear Equations 51
4.7.1 Iterative Techniques 52
4.7.2 Incremental Technique 53
4.7.3 Incremental-Iterative Techniques 53
4.8 Convergence Criteria 54
4.9 The Adopted Computer Programs 55

CHAPTER FIVE: Elastic Analysis of Flanged Beams

5.1 Introduction 56
5.2 Elastic Analysis of Flanged Beams Under Flexure 57
5.3 Razaqpur and Ghali’s Flanged Beam 57
5.3.1 General Description of Razaqpur and Ghali’s Flanged 58
Beam

H
 5.3.1 Finite Element Idealization and Material Properties 58
5.3.2 Razaqpur and Ghali’s beam- Result Of Analysis 60
5.4 Cheung and Chan’s Flanged Beams 64
5.4.1 General Description of Cheung and Chan’s Flanged 64
Beam
5.4.2 Finite Element Idealization and Material Properties 66
5.4.3 Cheung and Chan’s Flanged Beams-Results of 69
Analysis

CHAPTER SIX: Nonlinear Analysis of Reinforced Concrete

Flanged Beams
6.1 Introduction 72
6.2 Flanged Reinforced Concrete Beams Under Flexure 73
6.2.1 Tan et al.’s Simply Supported Flanged Beams 73
6.2.1.1 General Description of Tan et al.’s Flanged 74
Beam TS
6.2.1.2 Finite Element Idealization and Material Properties 74
6.2.1.3 Flanged Beam TS- Results of Analysis 70
6.2.1.4 Parametric Study 70
6.2.1.4.1 Effect of Mesh Refinement 70
6.2.1.4.2 Effect of the Tension-Stiffening Parameters 78
6.2.1.4.3 Effect of Integration Rule 81
6.2.1.4.4 Effect of the Nonlinear Solution Algorithms 81
6.2.1.4.5 Effect of Increasing the Concrete Compressive 83
Strength
6.2.1.4.6 Effect of the Amount of Tensile Reinforcement 88
6.2.1.4.7 Effect of Increasing the Flange Thickness 89
6.2.1.4.8 Effect of Increasing the Flange Width 90
6.2.1.4.9 Variation of the Compression Zone 91
6.2.2 Mattock’s Continuous Flanged Beam 98
6.2.2.1 General Description of Mattock’s Continuous 98
Flanged Beam R2
6.2.2.2 Finite Element Idealization and Material Properties 99
6.2.2.3 Flanged Beam R2- Results of Analysis 101
6.2.3 Tan et al.’s Simply Supported Flanged Beam with Web 105

I
 Opening
6.2.3.1 Details and Finite Element Idealization of 105
Tan et al.’s Beam
6.2.3.2 Results of Analysis of the flanged beam T2 108
6.2.4 Tan et al.’s Flanged Beam ITS 112
6.2.4.1 General Description of Tan et al.’ Flanged 113
Beam ITS
6.2.4.2 Finite Element Idealization and Material Properties 114
6.2.4.3 Results of Analysis of the flanged beam ITS 116

CHAPTER SEVEN: Conclusions and Suggestions for

Future Work
7.1 General 118
7.1.1 Elastic Analysis of Flanged Members 118
7.1.2 Nonlinear Analysis of Flanged Reinforced Concrete 119
Beams
7.2 Suggestion for Future Work 121

References 122
Appendix A
Appendix B

J
Chapter Seven

Conclusions and Suggestions for Future

Work

7.1 General
In this chapter, the conclusions based on the numerical analyzed carried out for the
flanged beams described in the pervious chapters are given. The conclusions drawn
from the present research work are divided into two parts. The first part deals with
the elastic linear analysis of flanged beams and the second part deals with the
nonlinear analysis of reinforced concrete flanged beams.
Many suggestions for further future work are also presented in this chapter.

7.1.1 Elastic Analysis of Flanged Members

1. The elastic analysis of flanged beams shows that the finite element
method can accurately simulate the behavior of flanged members subjected
to flexure. It was observed that during the elastic stage of behavior, the
longitudinal compressive stresses along the flange width are slightly
decreased with the distance from the flange centerline.
2. It was found that during the elastic stage of behavior, the effective width
obtained from the finite element method agrees well with that obtained from
previous analytical work. Upon comparison with the code formulae, it was
found that the ACI code provisions are conservative.

118
 Conclusions and Suggestions for Future Work

3. It was found that the span length has a substantial effect on the effective
flange width. The finite element method reveals that, as the span length
increase, the effective flange width is also increased.
4. The finite element solutions show that, the effective flange width
decreases at regions close to the applied concentrated loads.

7.1.2 Nonlinear Analysis of Flanged Reinforced Concrete Beams

1. The three-dimensional finite element model used in the present work is
able to simulate the behavior of flanged reinforced concrete members under
flexure. The numerical tests carried out for the different cases studied
showed that the predicted load deflection behavior and the collapse loads are
in good agreement with the experimental results.
2. The inclusion of the tension-stiffening model for cracked concrete can
significantly improve the correlation of the predicted post-cracking stiffness
with the experimental results at early stages after cracking. At stages close to
the ultimate load, the tension-stiffening phenomenon has insignificant effects
and can generally be neglected. Results of the finite element analysis showed
that the values of the parameter α1, which represents the rate of stress release
as the crack widens, has a slight effect on the collapse load and only affects
the post-cracking flexure stiffness at early stages after cracking. While the
parameter α2, which represents the sudden loss in the tensile stresses at onset
of cracking, slightly affects the behavior at stages close to the ultimate load.
3. From the numerical tests, carried out on the effect of integration rules
represented by accuracy of results and computational efficiency, it was found
that the type of integration scheme has an insignificant effect on the behavior
considered. All the 27, 15a and 15b integration rules are accurate.
4. The modified Newton-Raphson nonlinear solution techniques have been
used in the present research work (where the stiffness matrix is updated at
the first or second iteration of each increment). These techniques have been
found to be computationally efficient after a study carried out using different
solution algorithms.

119
 Conclusions and Suggestions for Future Work

5. In general, the concrete compressive strength affects the overall load-

deflection behavior of the flanged members. As the compressive strength
increases, the ultimate load capacity increases. The longitudinal compressive
stresses are also affected by the increase of the concrete compressive
strength. It is found from the finite element results that the distribution of the
longitudinal compressive stress along the flange width decreases slightly
with the distance from flange centerline. The longitudinal compressive stress
value at the outermost boundary of the flange is less than the corresponding
value at the flange centerline by about 20%.
6. For high strength concrete, the predicted ultimate moment is about 15%
higher than the collapse moment obtained from the ACI 318M-95 Code
formulae. The ACI Code values have been found to be conservative for high
values of concrete compressive strength.
7. The numerical tests revealed that, as the flange width increased the
collapse moment is increased. The collapse moment obtained from the
formula given by the ACI 318M-95 has been found to be conservative as the
flange width increases. For high flange widths, the predicted finite element
collapse moment is greater than the ACI Code value by about 25%.
8. For with wide flange beam, the longitudinal compressive stress slightly
decreases along the flange width. The value of the stress at the outermost
boundary of the flange is less than the corresponding value at the flange
centerline by about 15%.
9. The effect of the presence of an opening located in the tension zone of
beam cross-section on the overall behavior of flanged reinforced concrete
members was investigated using finite element technique. The finite element
solution revealed that the post-cracking stiffness is almost the same for
beams with and without such opening. However, the ultimate load capacity
of solid members is slightly greater than that containing such an opening. In
general, the presence of an opening does not affect the overall beam stiffness
behavior.

120
 Conclusions and Suggestions for Future Work

10. The effect of the presence of a flange in the tension zone of beam cross
section on the load-defection behavior of flanged reinforced concrete
members under flexure was studied using the finite element technique.
Insignificant effect was recognized upon evaluating the effect of this tension
flange on the load-deflection behavior and the ultimate load capacity.

7.2 Suggestions for Future Work

1. The adopted three-dimensional finite element model could be used to
carry out full range tests on flanged reinforced concrete members under
combination of bending and shear or bending and torsion. In the way that a
wide range of information will be obtained, so the development of more
accurate design procedures will be achieved.
2. The accuracy and versatility of the finite element model could be
improved with the inclusion of the effect of geometric nonlinearity in order
to extend the capability of the program to investigate the behavior of thin
flanged members in the presence of large displacements.
3. Analysis of fiber reinforced concrete flanged beams may be investigated
by modifying the material model implemented in the computer program.
4. Prestressed flanged beams have a wide range of application. Investigating
these members using the finite element method will provide information
about the stress distribution along the member.
5. Dynamic and impact loads are important problems that must be taken in
consideration in the analysis of flanged reinforced concrete members.

121
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