Proposals Within the Safety Formats for Non-linear Finite Element Analysis of Reinforced Concrete Structures

The study analyses the different safety formats for non-linear finite element analyses to assess the design strength of reinforced concrete members. In detail, non-linear finite element analyses are developed to reproduce various experimental tests in compliance with the different safety formats analysing the results in terms of resistance and failure mode. Then, some proposals are discussed. Specifically, two preliminary non-linear finite element analyses are suggested to verify which safety format can be used. In addition, in order to always apply all the safety formats for their reduced computational effort, an additional failure mode-based safety factor is presented to assess the design global resistance of reinforced concrete structures.