Flexural ductility fundamental mechanisms governing all RC members in particular FRP RC

The ability of a reinforced concrete structure to absorb energy and maintain applied loads is a vitally important concept and requirement in structural design and yet, in comparison with strengths, it is little understood and difficult to quantify. This has necessitated the use of empirically based solutions in design that can only be used within the bounds of the tests from which they were developed and tend to be conservative. This has held back the development of new products in particular FRP RC. This paper explains the fundamental mechanisms that control the ductility of all RC members and describes a mechanics based model that can simulate these mechanisms. It is shown that the model can simulate RC with any type of reinforcement, with any type of bond and with any type of concrete including fibre concrete; as such it is ideally suited for simulating FRP RC, as the reinforcement properties and bond vary widely, in order to develop simple design procedures.