Adaptive Stress Field Models: Formulation and Validation

The authors list in their interesting paper numerous promising notions: Adaptive Stress Field Model (ASFM), adaptive structures concept, model follows energy, form follows energy, and least global energy. The authors are right: "the cracking pattern is sometimes characterized by a main crack that deeply influences global structural behavior." The authors validate their models on the deep beams tested by Leonhardt and Walther (1966). After tedious calculations with the help of their ASFM, the authors make from the deep beams (D-regions) "ordinary" beam sections. Opposite to the assertion of the authors, no agreement between the numerical and experimental results in the case of the continuous deep beams can be noticed at all. The authors are encouraged to improve their model so that it becomes a legitimate support for the engineer. Meanwhile, the authors kindly appreciate the comments and the discussion provided by the discusser and his interest in the paper.