Strength criterion for a plane stress reinforced concrete element under a special action

Introduction. Problem solving focused on the protection of buildings and structures from progressive collapse and minimization of resources, needed for this purpose, is becoming increasingly important. In many countries, including Russia, this type of protection is incorporated into national regulatory documents, and, therefore, any research, aimed at developing effective ways to protect structural systems from progressive collapse under special actions, is particularly relevant. In this regard, the present article aims to formulate effective strength criteria for such anisotropic materials as reinforced concrete to analyze plane stressed reinforced concrete structures exposed to sudden structural transformations caused by the removal of one of bearing elements. Materials and methods. To solve this problem, a variant of the generalized theory of plasticity of concrete and reinforced concrete, developed by G.A. Geniev, is proposed for application to the case of variable loading of a plane stressed reinforced concrete element. The acceptability of generalization of the strength criterion, pursuant to the theory of plasticity of concrete and reinforced concrete under static loading, and the applicability of this criterion to variable static-dynamic loading of reinforced concrete are used as the main hypothesis. An algorithm of an approximate method is presented as a solution to this problem; it allows to analyze the considered stress-strain state of plane stressed reinforced concrete elements. Results. The numerical analysis of the obtained solution, compared with the results of the experimental studies, was used to evaluate the designed strength criterion for reinforced concrete elements located in the area where the column is connected to the girder of a monolithic reinforced concrete frame in case of a sudden restructuring of a structural system. It is found out that the qualitative nature of the destruction pattern of the area under research, obtained in experiments, corresponds to the destruction pattern, identified by virtue of the analysis performed using the proposed criterion. Conclusions. The variant of the reinforced concrete strength criterion designated for the variable loading of a plane stressed reinforced concrete element and an algorithm for its implementation, based on the theory of plasticity of concrete and reinforced concrete developed by G.A. Geniev, is applicable to the analysis of a special limit state of reinforced concrete elements of structural systems of frames of buildings and structures.