► Modeling of steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) post-cracking behavior. ► Adoption of a properly developed constitutive model to perform NLFE analyses. ► Modeling of fiber contributions: tension softening and tension stiffening. ► Model validation: comparison between experimental and numerical results. This paper aims to investigate and model the post-cracking behavior of steel fibre reinforced concrete (SFRC) elements, which is characterized by more distributed, narrower and closely spaced cracks with respect to ordinary reinforced concrete. A numerical procedure based on non-linear fracture mechanics concepts has been developed to take into account the main mechanisms governing the problem, namely the tension softening, related to the bridging effect provided by aggregates and fibers across cracks, and the tension stiffening between steel bars and surrounding concrete. The effectiveness of the proposed approach has been then verified through comparisons with significant experimental tests available in technical literature concerning SFRC slabs, tension ties and beams.