ABSTRACT
As pointed out in Section 4.4, while the study of the objectivity of a given numerical model deals with the sensitivity of its analytical predictions to the factors incorporated into the computational strategy, a model’s generality implies that it can successfully predict the behaviour of arbitrary structural configurations. It is, therefore, in order to test its generality that the 3-D FE model, incorporating the material and procedural factors recommended in Section 4.4.3, is now applied to a wide range of problems. In what follows, emphasis is placed mainly on problems concerned with the behaviour of reinforced concrete (RC) structural configurations under load reversals. However, although the model’s generality for the case of monotonic loading has already been demonstrated (Kotsovos and Pavlovic 1995), a limited number of such cases are also considered in order to investigate the effect of crack closure on the predicted behaviour, since this effect was initially assumed to be negligible.
