Crack opening prediction at casting joints with a new modified stress-strain law for embedded reinforcement

•An accurate Finite Element method to calculate crack width at joints is proposed.•The procedure that is proposed is not computational demanding.•The method relies on a modification of the stress-strain law od steel bars based on rational bond-slip model. Durability of concrete infrastructures is highly influenced by crack openings. Sensitive components of concrete structures are construction joints that appear both at “in situ” and pre-cast structures. Current codes do not accurately predict, nor in the side of safety, crack openings at joints. This paper provides a new calculation tool in order to accurately calculate these cracks to enhance the durability prediction of construction joints. In order to validate the new calculation method, results obtained with the new methodhave been compared with test results. This tool is based on an equivalent stress-strain constitutive law for reinforcements that considers the bond-slip model provided by Model Code 2010. Models calculated with this new equivalent embedded reinforcement stress-strain law showed accurate predictions for crack openings at construction joints for different types of concrete.