Calibration and validation of the Menetrey-Willam constitutive model for concrete

Flow plasticity theory has been widely used for nonlinear simulation of reinforced concrete (RC) structures. Constitutive relations of flow plasticity theory in CAE software are referred to as material models. One of the most popular concrete models is the Menetrey-Willam model realized in ANSYS software. The Menetrey-Willam constitutive model can well capture many important mechanical behaviors of concrete such as different tensile and compression strength, nonlinear hardening, softening, and dilatancy. However, there is no published calibration methodology with a clear foundation based on structural design standards. This study suggests an effective calibration procedure to identify the input parameters for the Menetrey-Willam model, mainly according to the CEB-FIP Model Code. Firstly, the identified parameters were verified on basic material tests by a single element simulation. Verification revealed full compliance simulation results with the standards for uniaxial compression, uniaxial tension, and biaxial compression stress states. To validate the ability of the material model to objectively reproduce structural behavior we validated it on six structural tests: confined uniaxial compression of a cube specimen, four-point bending test of a RC beam, three-point bending test of a notched concrete beam, eccentric compression of a RC column, shear rupture test and push-off test of an S-shaped specimen. For all structural tests, a mesh sensitivity analysis was also carried out. The use of the proposed model parameters allows to achieve a good match with the experimental data for all the considered problems almost independently of the mesh size. The obtained parameters can be conveniently used for occasional users without special knowledge in the field of concrete mechanics.