Self-centering reinforced concrete shear walls with shape-memory alloy rebars : experimental response and mechanics-based modelling

This thesis presents the adaptation of a mechanical model to simulate reinforced concrete wall boundary elements with shape memory alloy rebars. The model is composed of a set of elements which account for different sources of deformation. For an imposed global displacement of the boundary elements, the model provides the steel, concrete and SMA stress and strain profiles and the crack distribution and opening. Overall, a good match is obtained between the numerical and the experimental results from the previous experiments described in detail in the first part of this thesis.