A lumped damage model for unreinforced concrete cracking based on the energy equivalence hypothesis

The present paper proposes a new formulation for the LDM framework based on the energy equivalence hypothesis for unreinforced concrete cracking. The proposed model was applied to a beam under a four-point bending test and a real-size waterway tunnel lining, where the numerical results were compared to experimental observations. Regarding the analysed examples, the proposed model presented accurate results. It was possible to observe that the LDM using the energy equivalence hypothesis applied to unreinforced concrete structures leads to results in agreement with experimental references. Therefore, it is possible to assume that the energy equivalence hypothesis can be extended to analyse several structures of different materials under different load conditions under the LDM framework.