Failure path-independent methodology for structural damage evolution and failure mode analysis of framed structures

Traditional methods for structural damage evolution and failure mode analysis usually depend on specific failure path analysis, which is inefficient and time-consuming to implement for complex structures. In this paper, an efficient failure path-independent methodology for structural damage evolution and failure mode analysis of framed structures is proposed based on the elastic modulus reduction method. The element bearing ratio, uniformity of element bearing ratio and reference element bearing ratio are defined in terms of the homogeneous generalized yield function of spatial beam element, while a dynamic criterion is presented to identify the highly stressed elements. Subsequently, a self-adaptive strategy of elastic modulus adjustment is developed to reduce the elastic moduli of the highly stressed elements for simulation of structural damage evolution. Finally, the reduction rate of elastic moduli of the highly stressed elements is presented to determine the failed sections among the failure elements in the last iteration, based on which the potential failure mode is identified. The applicability, computational accuracy and efficiency of the proposed methodology are validated by comparing with the elasto-plastic methods through two numerical examples.