Back analysis of microplane model parameters using soft computing methods

Concrete is one of the most frequently used materials in Civil Engineering. Nevertheless, as a highly heterogeneous material, it shows very complex nonlinear behavior, which is extremely difficult to describe by a sound constitutive law. As a consequence, numerical simulation of response of complex concrete structures still remains a very challenging and demanding topic in engineering computational modeling. One of the most promising approaches to modeling of concrete behavior is based on the microplane concept, see, e.g., [7, Chapter 25] for general exposition and [1] for the most recent version of this family of models. It leads a fully three-dimensional material law that incorporates tensional and compressive softening, damage of the material, supports different combinations of loading, unloading and cyclic loading along with the development of damage-induced anisotropy of the material.