Numerical Simulation of Cracking and Damage Evolution in Reinforced Concrete Beams Using the Concrete Damaged Plasticity Model

Abstract

This study develops the calibration and validation of the Concrete Damaged Plasticity (CDP) model for the nonlinear finite element simulation of reinforced concrete beams subjected to monotonic bending. The research integrates a constitutive formulation based on continuous damage plasticity, two-dimensional discretization under plane stress conditions, and an iterative parametric fitting procedure implemented in Abaqus/Standard. The methodology was structured in four stages: (i) geometric definition and reinforcement modeling using embedded region techniques, (ii) constitutive characterization of the concrete, including Hognestad-type compression curves and tensile softening regularized by fracture energy, (iii) calibration of critical parameters of the CDP model—dilatance angle, regularization viscosity, and damage parameters—and (iv) quantitative validation by comparison with experimental results reported in the literature.