Behavior of inoxydable steel and their performance as reinforcement bars in concrete beam: Experimental and nonlinear finite element analysis

In the present work, the behavior of inoxydable steel and their performance as reinforcement bars in concrete structure is being investigated. Focus is given on the interaction behavior with concrete and the tension stiffening phenomenon. This study highlighted an approach to observe this interaction behavior in bending test instead of direct tension as per reported in many references. The approach and strategies applied is easier to set up and is able to observe the tension stiffening behavior in composite concrete beam. Finally, the constitutive law developed and the tension stiffening properties are then applied to numerical finite element analysis (FEA) to verify their correlation with actual behavior. Comparison with laboratory results shows a good correlation between the two. To conclude, the constitutive law provided in this paper has very good resemblance to the actual behavior of austenitic and therefore useful to represent the inelastic properties of these steels in any numerical modeling work. Tension stiffening parameters used is acceptable and the modeling strategies made in Abaqus can closely represent the actual condition.

► A complete study of inoxydable steel as rebars in composite concrete is presented.
► Inox has lower proportionality limit and extended strain hardening capability.
► The developed constitutive law could represents the nonlinear behavior of inox.
► Verification of tension stiffening in RC beam sample subjected to bending test.
► Nonlinear FEM strategies of RC beam with Abaqus software are outlined.