Application of Evaluation System for Strut-and-Tie Models of Reinforced Concrete Structures

Plenty of strut-and-tie models (STMs) typically exist for the same discontinuity region (D-region). Although these STMs constructed by different researchers may have their own advantages, only a reasonable STM is needed by designers during the process of structure design. Therefore, identifying a more appropriate model from all the existing ones seems to be a meaningful and challenging research task It is in this situation that the evaluation system is proposed in this study. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the evaluation system, almost all the existing STMs of a special-shaped beam are collected together and analyzed in detail. Furthermore, experimental analysis is conducted to validate the numerical results. The comparison indicates that the evaluation system is capable of ranking the performance of different Sills derived from the same member. The system provides a uned evaluation criterion for judging STMs and can be considered a comprehensive and practical technique for civil engineering.