Thermal Analysis of Reinforced-Concrete Shells

Abstract

A finite-element formulation that can be used for the analysis of reinforced-concrete shells subjected to thermal and mechanical loads is presented. It incorporates the nonlinear material model for concrete, which takes into account cracking of concrete, tension stiffening, softening of concrete in compression, and yielding of reinforcement. The finite elements used are the degenerate, isoparametric shell elements. The resulting finite-element procedure was checked by comparison of the theoretical and experimental results. A parametric study was undertaken, in which several special considerations associated with the thermal analysis of reinforced concrete were addressed and discussed.