Application of Adaptive Analysis to Reinforced Concrete Frames

Abstract

This is the second of two papers concerned with the application of adaptive techniques to the nonlinear analysis of reinforced concrete frames. The first paper presented a new nonlinear elastic formulation capable of representing an entire reinforced concrete member with one element, and the present paper discusses the use of such a formulation within the framework of adaptive inelastic analysis. This is followed by a description of an inelastic cubic formulation based on the layered approach, which complements the elastic formulation within the proposed methodology. The concept of automatic mesh refinement is then outlined, and comments are made regarding the applicability of the elastic formulation under low amplitude dynamic or cyclic loading. Finally, the accuracy and efficiency of adaptive analysis is verified through static and dynamic analyses using the nonlinear analysis program ADAPTIC. Comparisons are made where appropriate with the results of existing analysis methods for reinforced concrete frames to illustrate the advantages of the proposed methodology.