Finite elements with embedded discontinuities for modeling reinforced concrete members

Solid finite elements with embedded discontinuities have emerged in recent years as an alternative to smeared crack and interface elements. These embedded crack models have the potential to offer the accuracy of interface elements with the convenience of smeared crack elements for modeling concrete fracture.; Several advances have been made to improve the performance of embedded crack models. A stress hybrid element is used as the basis for an embedded crack element to improve the description of the traction field on the internal interface. This results in an element with a non-symmetric stiffness matrix, which may be undesirable in some situations. An enhanced symmetric formulation has also been developed to yield improved performance over other symmetric elements. In addition to these improved element formulations, a method has been developed to model the embedded interface with a rigid-plastic constitutive law.; To achieve accurate crack representation with embedded crack elements, strategies have been developed to ensure that cracks are aligned across element boundaries. Analyses are performed on concrete fracture and reinforced concrete problems to demonstrate the capabilities of these methods.