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The Barcelona model is one of the most widespread models used in the nonlinear finite element method for simulating the real behavior of concrete. The strong robustness of this model can be attributed to two main reasons, the first one being its ability to account for the elastic stiffness degradation induced by plastic straining and the second one the aptness of considering the stiffness recovery effects under cyclic loading. This model was examined in the paper by comparing the generated stress–strain diagrams with several analytical solutions from the literature. The comparing process in the compression and tension cases with the closed-form solutions of Desayi, Krätzig, Lubliner and Thorenfeldt proved that the Barcelona model provided identical outcomes with Lubliner’s formula, which was used as the hardening function in the finite element implementation of this model. What is more, this model provided the same curves in case of the others in the ascending branches, and for the descending branch, this study proved that the outcomes of the Barcelona model are completely different from the ones of Desayi in the compression case and slightly similar to Thorenfeldt’s curves in the tension case.

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