Consideration of compression stress bulging and strut degradation in truss modeling of ductile and brittle corbels

The paper presents a newly introduced modification of the strut-and-tie model that takes into account compression stress bulging of the strut with proper attention to its degradation as tensile strains increase. The method is capable of discriminating between brittle and ductile modes of failure, thus eliminating the gross underestimation of capacity often observed in applying the truss model to brittle corbels. The proposed method provides improved corbel-capacity prediction in comparison to the provision of three design codes.