Hi,

I started modelling the
behaviour of the reinforced concrete walls under cyclic loading using
ABAQUS/Explicit.  I used a shell element part with solid homogeneous
section and defined the concrete behaviour using concrete damaged plasticity
material definition. Embedded truss elements were used to define the steel
rebars. In 2 different steps (left and right) I defined the cyclic loading (in
plane) as imposed displacement (using amplitude-smooth step).

My question are:

1. Is it correct to define
the cyclic loading in this meaner? 

Concrete is currently the most important material in the building industry. However, it is very weak in tension,  compared to its strength in compression. To overcome this problem, prestressed concrete is usually used.  Prestressed concrete is plain concrete with reinforcement of steel, polymers or, in this case, shape memory alloys. The prestressing is usually introduced by applying tension to the reinforcement in the concrete members. Consequently, initial compressive stresses are transmitted to the concrete matrix; the application of permanent  compressive stress increases the apparent tensile strength of the concrete, since upon tensile loading, the compressive stresses must first be nullified.