KSCE Journal of Civil Engineering (2011) 15(1):131-144 Structural Engineering

DOI 10.1007/s12205-011-0729-4
www.springer.com/12205

Curvature Ductility of RC Sections Based on Eurocode: Analytical Procedure

Srinivasan Chandrasekaran*, Luciano Nunziante**, Giorgio Serino***, and Federico Carannante****
Received October 12, 2008/Accepted March 16, 2010

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Abstract

Correct estimate of curvature ductility of reinforced concrete members has always been an attractive subject of study as it
engenders a reliable estimate of capacity of buildings under seismic loads. The majority of the building stock needs structural
assessment to certify their safety under revised seismic loads by new codes. Structural assessment of existing buildings, by
employing nonlinear analyses tools like pushover, needs an accurate input of moment-curvature relationship for reliable results. In
the present study, nonlinear characteristics of constitutive materials are mathematically modelled according to Eurocode, currently in
prevalence and analytical predictions of curvature ductility of reinforced concrete sections are presented. Relationships, in explicit
form, to estimate the moment-curvature response are proposed, leading to closed form solutions after their verification with those
obtained from numerical procedures. The purpose is to estimate curvature ductility under service loads in a simpler closed form
manner. The influence of longitudinal tensile and compression steel reinforcement ratios on curvature ductility is also examined and
discussed. The spread sheet program used to estimate the moment-curvature relationship, after simplifying the complexities involved
in such estimate, predicts in good agreement with the proposed analytical expressions. Avoiding somewhat tedious hand calculations
and approximations required in conventional iterative design procedures, the proposed estimate of curvature ductility avoids errors
and potentially unsafe design.
Keywords: analytical solutions, concrete, curvature ductility, elasto plastic, reinforced concrete, seismic, structures, yield
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1. Introduction
The focus of earthquake resistant design of Reinforced Concrete
(RC) framed structures is on the displacement ductility of the
buildings rather than on the materials like reinforcing steel.
Critical points of interest are the strain levels in concrete and
steel, indicating whether the failure is tensile or compressive at
the instant of reaching plastic hinge formation (Pisanty and
Regan, 1998). Studies show that the estimate of ductility demand
is of particular interest to structural designers to ensure effective
redistribution of moments in ultra-elastic response, allowing for
the development of energy dissipative zones until collapse (see,
for example, Pisanty and Regan, 1993). In areas subjected to
earthquakes, a very important design consideration is the ductility
of the structure because modern seismic design philosophy is
based on energy absorption and dissipation by post-elastic defor-
mation for survival in major earthquakes (Paulay and Priestley,
1992). Many old buildings show their structure unfit to support
seismic loads demanded by the structural assessment requests of
the revised international codes (see, for example, Chandrasekaran
and Roy, 2006; Chao Hsun Huang et al., 2006). Further, Sinan
and Metin (2007) showed that the deformation demand pre-
dictions by improved Demand Capacity Method are sensitive to
ductility as higher ductility results in conservative predictions.
Estimate of moment-curvature relationship of RC sections has
been a point of research interest since many years (Pfrang et al.,
1964; Carrreira and Chu, 1986; Mo, 1992); historically, moment-
curvature relationships with softening branch were first intro-
duced by Wood (1968). Load-deformation characteristics of RC
structural members, bending in particular, are mainly dependent
on moment-curvature characteristics of the sections as most of
these deformations arise from strains associated with flexure
(Park and Paulay, 1975). As seen from the literature, in well-
designed and detailed RC structures, the gap between the actual
and design lateral forces narrows down by ensuring ductility in
the structure (see, for example, Luciano and Raffaele, 1988;
Pankaj and Manish, 2006). With regard to RC building frames
with side-sway, their response assessment is complicated not
because of the influence of second order deformations, but also
due to the fact that considerable re-distribution of moments may
occur due to plastic behaviour of sections. Plastic curvature is
therefore a complex issue mainly because of interaction of various

*Associate Professor, Dept. of Ocean Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600036, India (Corresponding Aughor, E-mail:
drsekaran@iitm.ac.in)
**Professor, Dept. of Structural Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, 21 via Claudio, 80125, Naples, Italy (E-mail: nunsci@unina.it)
***Professor, Dept. of Structural Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, 21 via Claudio, 80125, Naples, Italy (E-mail: serino@unina.it)
****Visiting Researcher, Dept. of Structural Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, 21 via Claudio, 80125, Naples, Italy (E-mail: fedcarran@libero.it)

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 Srinivasan Chandrasekaran, Luciano Nunziante, Giorgio Serino, and Federico Carannante

parameters namely: i) constitutive material’s response; ii) mem- 2. Mathematical Development

ber geometry; as well as iii) loading conditions. Observations
made by Challamel and Hjiaj (2005) on plastic softening beams Significant nonlinearity exhibited by concrete, under multi-
show that the correct estimate of yield moment, a non-local axial stress state, can be successively represented by nonlinear
material parameter, is important to ensure proper continuity characteristics of constitutive models capable of interpreting
between elastic and plastic regions during the loading process. inelastic deformations (see, for example, Chen 1994a, 1994b).
Experimental evidences on moment-curvature relationship of Studies conducted by researchers (Sankarasubramanian and
RC sections already faced limited loading cases and support Rajasekaran, 1996; Fan and Wang, 2002; Nunziante et al., 2007)
conditions (see, for example, Ko et al., 2001). While Mo (1992) describe different failure criteria in stress space by a number of
suggested classical approach to reproduce moment-curvature independent control parameters while the non-linear elastic
relationship with the softening branch carried out elastic-plastic response of concrete is characterized by parabolic stress-strain
buckling analysis using finite element method, an alternative relationship in the current study, as shown in Fig. 1. Elastic limit
approach proposed by Jirasek and Bazant (2002) uses a simpli- strain and strain at cracking are limited to 0.2% and 0.35%
fied model where this complex nonlinear geometric effect is respectively, as prescribed by the code, currently in prevalence
embedded in the nonlinear material behaviour of the cross (DM 9, 1996; UNI ENV, 1991a, 1991b; Ordinanza, 2003, 2005;
section. Experimental investigations also impose limitations in Norme tecniche, 2005). Tensile stresses in concrete are ignored
estimating the plastic rotation capacity. For instance, studies in the study. Design ultimate stress in concrete in compression is
show that experimental results obtained from rotation-deflection given by:
behaviour show good agreement with the analysis in elastic
( 0.83 ) ( 0.85 )R
regime; but for phase of yielding of reinforcing steel, theoretical σc0 = -------------------------------------
cK
- (1)
γc
results do not agree with the experimental inferences (see, for
example, Lopes and Bernardo, 2003). where, γc and Rck are the partial safety factor and compressive cube
Studies reviewed above show that there exists no simplified strength of concrete, respectively. The stress-strain relationship for
procedure to estimate curvature ductility of RC sections. While re- concrete under compressive stresses is given by:
sponse of RC building frames under ground shaking generally
results in nonlinear behaviour, increased implementation of displa- σc ( εc ) = a ε2c + b εc + c 0 ≤ εc ≤ εc0
cement-based design approach lead to the use of nonlinear static σc ( εc ) = σc0 εc0 ≤ εc ≤ εcu (2)
procedures for estimating their seismic demands (ATC, 2005; σ c ( εc ) = 0 εc ≤ 0
BSSC, 2003). An estimate of moment-curvature relationship be-
comes essential for performing non-linear analyses. Therefore, in where, parameters a, b and c in Eq. (2), are determined by
this study, an estimate of curvature ductility of RC sections, using imposing the following conditions:
detailed analytical procedure is attempted. Calculations of moment- σ c ( εc = 0 ) = 0
curvature relationship are based on their nonlinear characteristics c=0
in full depth of the cross section, for different ratios of longitudinal σc ( εc = εc0 ) = σc0
⇒ a ε2c0 + b εc0 = σc0 (3)
tensile and compression reinforcements. They account for the vari- d σc
-------- =0 2a εc0 + b = 0
ation on depth of neutral axis passing through different domains, d εc εc = εc0
classified on the basis of strain levels reached in the constitutive
By solving, we get:
materials, namely concrete and steel. Obtained results, by employ-
ing the numerical procedure on example RC sections, are verified σc0 2 σc0
-, b = ---------
a = ------ -, c = 0 (4a)
with expressions derived from detailed analytical modelling. 2
εc0 εc0

Fig. 1. Stress-strain Relationships: (a) Concrete, (b) Steel

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