The analysis of reinforced concrete structures until failure requires the consideration of geometric and material nonlinearities. However, nonlinear analysis is much more complex and costly than linear analysis. In order to obtain a computationally efficient approach to nonlinear analysis of reinforced concrete structures, this work presents the formulation of a nonlinear plane frame element. Geometric nonlinearity is considered using the co-rotational approach and material nonlinearity is included using appropriate constitutive relations for concrete and steel. The integration of stress resultants and tangent constitutive matrix is carried out by the automatic subdivision of the cross-section and the application of the Gauss quadrature in each subdivision. The formulation and computational implementation are validated using experimental results available in the literature. Excellent results were obtained.
concrete structures; nonlinear analysis; plane frames; finite element method
