Development and Validation of a Generalized Biaxial Hysteresis Model

Abstract

Biaxial flexural interaction has been known to significantly affect, in many cases magnify, structural response in the inelastic range. Compared to uniaxial cases, the distinct characteristics of biaxial hysteresis curves often observed are negative stiffness and rounded corners of the curves near the time instants of unloading. Developed based on the widely used Bouc-Wen model, this paper presents a generalized biaxial smooth hysteresis model that takes into account the commonly observed hysteretic characteristics of strength and stiffness degradation, asymmetry in ultimate positive and negative forces, pinching, and those exclusively found in biaxial interaction. The capabilities of the developed model are illustrated by comparing the model results to the results of two cyclic and two quasi-static reinforced concrete column tests.