Modeling the hysteretic responses of RC shear walls under cyclic loading by an energy-based plastic-damage model for concrete

This paper addresses application of an energy-based plastic-damage model for concrete to the modeling of hysteretic responses of reinforced concrete (RC) shear walls. Both damage evolution and plastic flows are accounted for within the framework of thermodynamics, resulting in consistent energy-based damage evolution laws. The model is implemented in the commercial software package ABAQUS via the user-defined material subroutine and applied to two representative benchmark tests of RC shear walls under cyclic loading. It is shown that with the steel reinforcement properly accounted for, the energy-based plastic-damage model can capture realistically the failure modes, load capacities, and overall load–deformation responses of RC shear walls.