Virtual Earthquake Engineering Laboratory Capturing Nonlinear Shear, Localized Damage and Progressive Buckling of Bar

We embarked upon developing a novel parallel simulation platform that is rooted in microphysical mechanisms. Primarily aiming at large-scale reinforced-concrete structures exposed to cyclic loading, we sought to settle the question as to how to capture nonlinear shear, localized damage and progressive buckling of reinforcing bar. We proposed a tribology-inspired three-dimensional (3-D) interlocking mechanism in the well-established framework of multidirectional smeared crack models. Strong correlation between random material property and localized damage has been shown, notably at the global system level. An automated platform has been suggested to capture progressive buckling phenomena. Validation and applications straddle a wide range, from small laboratory tests to large-scale 3-D experiments, successfully offering a clear causal pathway between underlying physical mechanisms and the unresolved issues addressed above. [DOI: 10.1193/1.4000095]