A simple model for fatigue crack growth in concrete applied to a hinge beam model

•The simplified fatigue model adequately describe the uni-axial behaviour of cracked concrete in tension.•The presented model accounts for the material behaviour in all the cracked phases.•The model is successfully implemented into a cracked-hinge.•Implementation of the hinge into a beam element is straightforward.•The proposed hinge comply well with experimental fatigue crack growth curves for simply supported beams. In concrete structures, fatigue is one of the major causes of material deterioration. Repeated loads result in formation of cracks. Propagation of these cracks cause internal progressive damage within the concrete material which ultimately leads to failure. This paper presents a simplified general concept for non-linear analysis of concrete subjected to cyclic loading. The model is based on the fracture mechanics concepts of the fictitious crack model, considering a fiber of concrete material, and a simple energy based approach for estimating the bridging stress under cyclic loading. Further, the uni-axial fiber response is incorporated in a numerical hinge model for beam analysis. Finally, the hinge model is implemented into a finite element beam element on a constitutive level. The proposed model is compared to experimental results on both fiber- and beam level. The proposed model shows good performance and seems well suited for the description of fatigue crack growth in concrete.