An improved fracture approach to investigate the degradation of vibration characteristics for reinforced concrete beams under progressive damage

This work presents a cohesive fracture modeling approach to investigate the damage effects on the mechanical response of reinforced concrete beams in terms of degradation of vibration characteristics. The proposed model can simulate the diffuse cracking behavior of reinforced concrete beams together with the steel–concrete interaction providing also the static and dynamic response at increasing damage levels including the effects of concrete cyclic behavior. The numerical outcomes were validated through comparisons with experimental results reported in the literature, demonstrating the consistency and the applicability of the proposed numerical model in the framework of “model-based” damage identification procedures. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd