Description of the constitutive behaviour of stainless steel reinforcement

Abstract

This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the constitutive relationship of stainless steel reinforcement and proposes new material models for both austenitic and duplex stainless steel bars. These are an advancement on existing models which have largely been developed for structural stainless steel plate, rather than for reinforcement bars. Current design guidance for material modelling of reinforcing bars does not include representative stress-strain relationships which capture the unique mechanical properties of stainless steel reinforcement. Codes include idealised elastic-plastic material models which are inappropriate and inefficient for the highly nonlinear and ductile material response of stainless steel. The present study aims to address this issue by first conducting a series of tensile tests to ascertain the stress-strain material responses and then employing this data to examine the validity of existing approaches and propose new material models where required. It is shown that new material models are required and those that are developed are able to accurately capture the stress-strain response of stainless steel reinforcement, and provide a better, more accurate, representation than existing methods.