Estimation and verification of the yield deformation of reinforced concrete members

•A calculation method for the estimating RC columns, beams, and walls yield deformation is proposed.•The method explicitly considers the effect of shear deformation and bar slippage in addition to flexural deformation.•A large database of past results of experiments done in Japan have been used to verify its accuracy.•Some factors which could influence the accuracy of proposed method are discussed. This paper focuses on the development and verification of a unified calculation method for estimating the yield of reinforced concrete (RC) beams, columns, and walls deformation considering flexural deformations, shear deformations, and bar slip deformations. Each component of yield deformation is considered independently, and the estimated yield deformation is the sum of these three parts. To verify the accuracy of this method, yield deformation results from a database of experimental results from tests performed in Japan on RC components was compared against those predicted by the proposed methods. The results show that the proposed method provides a reasonable prediction of the yield deformation and show that the proposed method has a better estimate of yield deformation than other previous methods. Sensitivity analysis on the influence of the rigidity reduction rate due to the shear effect, and the anchorage length in the bar slippage calculation, was performed. It was found that the rigidity reduction rate factor could influence the accuracy for walls. The influence of other material and member characteristics are also discussed herein.