New damage evolution law in plastic damage models for fiber‐reinforced cementitious composites

Abstract Nowadays, fiber‐reinforced cement‐based composites (FRCC) can develop ductile behavior with high toughness when the matrix, fibers, and interface are optimally designed. These materials are promising solutions for constructing more resilient structures. In this context, the widespread use in large‐scale applications requires reliable models to predict the performance of FRCC structures. Usually, the studies on numerical modeling of FRCC apply the damage laws developed for quasi‐brittle concrete, making damage increase faster than really occurs in the presence of fibers. Therefore, the present paper proposes a new damage evolution model for FRCC based on energy dissipation concepts. It is assumed that the dissipated energy contributes fully to the evolution of the scalar damage and plastic strain variables, which is a technical advance from the previous works. The damage evolution is obtained with experimental envelopes of uniaxial stress–strain tests and the focal point from loading–unloading cycles. The results showed that the model accurately predicted experimental results using the damage‐plasticity framework. Furthermore, there are no empirical constants in the proposal, which means that it can be applied to any class of FRCC. An application regarding damage evaluation near a load transfer device in jointed plain cementitious pavements is presented. The damage distribution reveals that using FRCC materials has induced smaller damage values when compared with using conventional concrete. Consequently, cracking is reduced in such zones, increasing the structural life of the pavement.