Solving Concrete Cracking Problems with a General Purpose Finite Element Program

FIESTA (Flnite Elements in STructural Analysis) is the name of a general purpose computer program for the analysis of structures with linear or non-linear material properties. FIESTA has been developed during the last few years at the Concrete and Structural Research Institute. Originally the program was intended only for nonlinear and cracking analysis of concrete shells of revolution with arbitrary loading, using a semianalytic method in which the circumferential variation of the load is approximated by Fourier series. This method is widely used in linear analysis, but very little in nonlinear analysis. Since a program with this capability has to possess most of the necessary attributes of a general purpose program, it was decided to continue the development with appropiate regard to generality.