Mesoscale Approach to Modeling Concrete Subjected to Thermomechanical Loading
Publication: Journal of Engineering Mechanics
Volume 136, Issue 3
Abstract
Concrete subjected to combined compressive stresses and temperature loading exhibits compressive strains, which are considerably greater than for concrete subjected to compressive stresses alone. This phenomenon is called transient thermal creep or load induced thermal strain and is usually modeled by macroscopic phenomenological constitutive laws which have only limited predictive capabilities. In the present study a mesoscale modeling approach is proposed in which the macroscopically observed transient thermal creep results from the mismatch of thermal expansions of the mesoscale constituents. The mesostructure of concrete is idealized as a two-dimensional three-phase material consisting of aggregates, matrix, and interfacial transition zones. The nonlinear material response of the phases is described by a plasticity interface model. The mesoscale approach was applied to analyze compressed concrete specimens subjected to uniform temperature histories and the analysis results were compared to experimental results reported in the literature.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The simulations were performed with the object-oriented finite-element package OOFEM (Patzák and Bittnar 2001) extended by the present writers. The mesh has been prepared with the mesh generator Triangle (Shewchuk 1996).
References
Aurenhammer, F. (1991). “Voronoi diagrams—A survey of a fundamental geometric data structure.” ACM Comput. Surv., 23, 345–405.
Bažant, Z. P., and Chern, J. C. (1987). “Stress-induced thermal and shrinkage strains in concrete.” J. Eng. Mech., 113(10), 1493–1511.
Bolander, J. E., and Saito, S. (1998). “Fracture analysis using spring networks with random geometry.” Eng. Fract. Mech., 61, 569–591.
Budiansky, B., and O’Connell, R. (1976). “Elastic moduli of a cracked solid.” Int. J. Solids Struct., 12(2), 81–97.
Carpinteri, A., Cornetti, P., and Puzzi, S. (2004). “A stereological analysis of aggregate grading and size effect on concrete tensile strength.” Int. J. Fract., 128, 233–242.
Colina, H., and Sercombe, J. (2004). “Transient thermal creep of concrete in service conditions at temperatures up to 300 degrees C.” Mag. Concr. Res., 56(10), 559–574.
de Borst, R., and Peeters, P. (1989). “Analysis of concrete structures under thermal loading.” Comput. Methods Appl. Mech. Eng., 77, 293–310.
Dormieux, L., Kondo, D., and Ulm, F. (2006). Microporomechanics, Wiley, New York.
Gawin, D., Pesavento, F., and Schrefler, B. (2004). “Modelling of deformations of high strength concrete at elevated temperatures.” Mater. Struct., 37(4), 218–236.
Grassl, P., and Jirásek, M. (2004). “On mesh bias of local damage models for concrete.” Fracture mechanics of concrete structures, V. Li, C. K. Y. Leung, K. J. Willam, and S. L. Billington, eds., la-FraMCos, Vail, Colo., 323–337.
Grassl, P., and Rempling, R. (2007). “Influence of volumetric-deviatoric coupling on crack prediction in concrete fracture tests.” Eng. Fract. Mech., 74, 1683–1693.
Grassl, P., and Rempling, R. (2008). “A damage-plasticity interface approach to the meso-scale modelling of concrete subjected to cyclic compressive loading.” Eng. Fract. Mech., 75, 4804–4818.
Griffiths, D. V., and Mustoe, G. G. W. (2001). “Modelling of elastic continua using a grillage of structural elements based on discrete element concepts.” Int. J. Numer. Methods Eng., 50, 1759–1775.
Grondin, F., Dumontet, H., Ben Hamida, A., Mounajed, G., and Boussa, H. (2007). “Multi-scales modelling for the behaviour of damaged concrete.” Cement Concr. Res., 37(10), 1453–1462.
Hassen, S., and Colina, H. (2006). “Transient thermal creep of concrete in accidental conditions at temperatures up to 400 degrees C.” Mag. Concr. Res., 58(4), 201–208.
Heukamp, F. H., Lemarchand, E., and Ulm, F. J. (2005). “The effect of interfacial properties on the cohesion of highly filled composite materials.” Int. J. Solids Struct., 42(1), 287–305.
Jirásek, M., and Bažant, Z. P. (1995). “Particle model for quasibrittle fracture and application to sea ice.” J. Eng. Mech., 121(9), 1016–1025.
Jirásek, M., and Grassl, P. (2008). “Evaluation of directional mesh bias in concrete fracture simulations using continuum damage models.” Eng. Fract. Mech., 75, 1921–1943.
Kawai, T. (1977). “New element models in discrete structural analysis.” J. Soc. Nav. Archit. Jpn., 141, 187–193.
Khennane, A., and Baker, G. (1992). “Thermoplasticity model for concrete under transient temperature and biaxial stress.” Proc. R. Soc. London, Ser. A, 439, 59–80.
Khennane, A., and Baker, G. (1993). “Uniaxial model for concrete under variable temperature and stress.” J. Eng. Mech., 119(8), 1507–1525.
Khoury, G., Grainger, B. N., and Sullivan, P. J. E. (1985). “Transient thermal strain of concrete: Literature review, conditions within specimen and behaviour of individual constituents.” Mag. Concr. Res., 37, 131–144.
Lilliu, G., and van Mier, J. G. M. (2003). “3D lattice type fracture model for concrete.” Eng. Fract. Mech., 70, 927–941.
Morikawa, O., Sawamota, Y., and Kobayashi, N. (1993). “Local fracture analysis of a reinforced concrete slab by the discrete element method.” Proc., 2nd Int. Conf. on Discrete Element Methods, M. Press, ed., Cambridge, Mass., 275–286.
Nechnech, W., Meftah, F., and Reynouard, J. (2002). “An elasto-plastic damage model for plain concrete subjected to high temperatures.” Eng. Structures, 24(5), 597–611.
Nielsen, C. V., Pearce, C. J., and Bicanic, N. (2002). “Theoretical model of high temperature effects on uniaxial concrete member under elastic restraint.” Mag. Concr. Res., 54, 239–249.
Patzák, B., and Bittnar, Z. (2001). “Design of object oriented finite element code.” Adv. Eng. Software, 32, 759–767.
Pearce, C. J., Nielsen, C., and Bicanic, N. (2004). “Gradient enhanced thermo-mechanical damage model for concrete at high temperatures including transient thermal creep.” Int. J. Numer. and Anal. Methods in Geomech., 28(7–8), 715–735.
Pichler, B., Hellmich, C., and Dormieux, L. (2007). “Potentials and limitations of Griffith’s energy release rate criterion for Mode I type microcracking in brittle materials.” Bifurcations, instabilities, degradation in geomechanics, Part III, Springer, New York, 245–275.
Sabeur, H., Meftah, F., Colina, H., and Platret, G. (2008). “Correlation between transient creep of concrete and its dehydration.” Mag. Concr. Res., 60(3), 157–163.
Schlangen, E., and Garboczi, E. J. (1996). “New method for simulating fracture using an elastically uniform random geometry lattice.” Int. J. Eng. Sci., 34(10), 1131–1144.
Schlangen, E., and van Mier, J. G. M. (1992). “Simple lattice model for numerical simulation of fracture of concrete materials and structures.” Mater. Struct., 25, 534–542.
Schneider, U. (1988). “Concrete at high temperatures—A general review.” Fire Saf. J., 13, 55–68.
Shewchuk, J. R. (1996). “Triangle: Engineering a 2D quality mesh generator and Delaunay triangulator.” Applied computational geometry: Towards geometric engineering, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, M. C. Lin and D. Manocha, eds., Vol. 1148, Springer, New York, 203–222.
Thelandersson, S. (1983). “On the multiaxial behaviour of concrete exposed to high temperature.” Nucl. Eng. Des., 75, 271–282.
Thelandersson, S. (1987). “Modeling of combined thermal and mechanical action in concrete.” J. Eng. Mech., 113(6), 893–906.
Thienel, K. C., and Rostasy, F. S. (1996). “Transient creep of concrete under biaxial stress and high temperature.” Cement Concr. Res., 26, 1409–1422.
Willam, K., Rhee, I., and Shing, B. (2004). “Interface damage model for thermomechanical degradation of heterogeneous materials.” Comput. Methods Appl. Mech. Eng., 193(30–32), 3327–3350.
Willam, K., Rhee, I., and Xi, Y. (2005). “Thermal degradation of heterogeneous concrete materials.” J. Mater. Civ. Eng., 17(3), 276–285.
Youssef, M., and Moftah, M. (2007). “General stress-strain relationship for concrete at elevated temperatures.” Eng. Structures, 29(10), 2618–2634.
Zubelewicz, A., and Bažant, Z. P. (1987). “Interface modeling of fracture in aggregate composites.” J. Eng. Mech., 113(11), 1619–1630.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Engineering Mechanics
Volume 136 • Issue 3 • March 2010
Pages: 322 - 328
Copyright
© 2010 ASCE.
History
Received: Nov 15, 2007
Accepted: Oct 15, 2009
Published online: Feb 12, 2010
Published in print: Mar 2010
Notes
Note. Associate Editor: Christian Hellmich
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.