Mixed DEM/FEM Modeling of Advanced Damage in Reinforced Concrete Structures
Publication: Journal of Engineering Mechanics
Volume 143, Issue 2
Abstract
This paper aims to present a mixed, or combined, numerical approach to modeling advanced degradation and predicting failure in reinforced concrete (RC) structures. The discrete-element method (DEM) is used to model the cohesive behavior and fracturing of concrete, whereas the standard finite-element method (FEM) is applied to represent steel reinforcement through an elastic-plastic beam model. Because of specificity in the geometric support, which does not allow for hierarchical mesh refinement, convergence of the spherical DEM has never been proved, making it difficult to master DE simulations. In this paper the authors present results of a computational study conducted by means of deforming a DEM sample and varying several parameters, which allowed determining the minimum discretization required for a DEM sample to correctly reproduce the macroscopic behavior of concrete, and thus evaluating consistency of the spherical DEM used herein. An original steel-concrete bond model, developed to simulate the interaction between the steel and concrete models, is also presented. This model was devised to decouple normal and tangential responses, which allows fitting them separately in accordance with experimental data. The numerical simulations of tests performed on unreinforced and reinforced concrete samples and the modeling of the hard-type impact on a RC beam indicate the relevance of the proposed approach for simulating advanced damage in civil engineering structures under both static and dynamic loads.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support (contract no. 2011/1105) provided by the French National Research and Technology Association (ANRT).
References
Belytschko, T., and Lin, J. I. (1987). “A three-dimensional impact-penetration algorithm with erosion.” Comput. Struct., 25(1), 95–104.
Camborde, F., Mariotti, C., and Donzé, F. V. (2000). “Numerical study of rock and concrete behavior by discrete element modeling.” Comput. Geotech., 27(4), 225–247.
Carneiro, F. L. L. B. (1943). “A new method to determine the tensile strength of concrete.” Proc., 5th Meeting of the Brazilian Association for Technical Rules (“Associação Brasileire de Normas Técnicas—ABNT”), 126–129 (in Portuguese).
Chambart, M. (2009). “Endommagement anisotrope et comportement dynamique des structures en béton armé jusqu’à la ruine [Anisotropic damage and dynamic behavior of reinforced concrete structures until failure].” Ph.D. thesis, Ecole normale supérieure de Cachan (ENS Cachan), Cachan Cedex, France (in French).
Cusatis, G., Pelessone, D., and Mencarelli, A. (2011). “Lattice discrete particle model (LDPM) for failure behavior of concrete. I: Theory.” Cem. Concr. Compos., 33(9), 881–890.
EUROPLEXUS [Computer software]. ⟨http://www-epx.cea.fr⟩.
Farra, B., and Jaccoud, J. P. (1993). “Influence du béton et de l’armature sur la fissuration des structures en béton [Influence of concrete and reinforcement on cracking of concrete structures].”, EPF de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland (in French).
Gabet, T. (2006). “Comportement triaxial du béton sous fortes contraintes: Influence du trajet de chargement [Triaxial behavior of concrete under strong stresses: Influence of the loading path].” Ph.D. thesis, Université de Grenoble, Saint-Martin-d'Hères, France (in French).
Gabet, T., Vu, X. H., Malecot, Y., and Daudeville, L. (2006). “A new experimental technique for the analysis of concrete under high triaxial loading.” J. Phys. IV, 134, 635–640.
Hentz, S. (2003). “Modélisation d’une Structure en Béton Armé Soumise à un Choc par la méthode des Éléments Discrets [Modeling of a structure in reinforced concrete submitted to a choc by the discrete element method].” Ph.D. thesis, Université de Grenoble, Saint-Martin-d'Hères, France (in French).
Hentz, S., Daudeville, L., and Donzé, F. V. (2004a). “Discrete element modelling of concrete submitted to dynamic loading at high strain rate.” Comput. Struct., 82(29–30), 2509–2524.
Hentz, S., Daudeville, L., and Donzé, F. V. (2004b). “Identification and validation of a discrete element model for concrete.” J. Eng. Mech, 709–719.
Jerier, J.-F., Richefeu, V., Imbault, D., and Donzé, F. V. (2010). “Packing spherical discrete elements for large scale simulations.” Comput. Methods Appl. Mech. Eng, 199(25–28), 1668–1676.
Liu, G. R. (2010). Meshfree methods: Moving beyond the finite element method, 2nd Ed., CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL.
Masurel, A. (2015). “Modélisation mixte éléments discrets/éléments finis de la dégradation de structures en béton armé sous impact sévère [Mixed discrete element/finite element modeling of degradation of reinforced concrete structures under severe impact].” Ph.D. thesis, Université de Grenoble Alpes, Saint-Martin-d'Hères, France (in French).
Nguyen, V. P., Rabczuk, T., Bordas, S., and Duflot, M. (2008). “Meshless methods: A review and computer implementation aspects.” Math. Comput. Simul., 79(3), 763–813.
Nooru-Mohamed, M. B. (1992). “Mixed-mode fracture of concrete: An experimental approach.” Ph.D. thesis, Delft Univ. of Technology, Delft, Netherlands.
Prado, E., and Van Mier, J. (2003). “Effect of particle structure on mode I fracture process in concrete.” Eng. Fract. Mech., 70(14), 1793–1807.
Rousseau, J. (2009). “Modélisation numérique du comportement dynamique de structures sous impact sévère avec un couplage éléments discrets / éléments finis [Numerical modeling of dynamic behavior of reinforced concrete structures under severe impact using DEM/FEM coupling].” Ph.D. thesis, Université de Grenoble, Saint-Martin-d'Hères, France (in French).
Rousseau, J., Frangin, E., Marin, P., and Daudeville, L. (2008). “Damage prediction in the vicinity of an impact on a concrete structure: A combined FEM/DEM approach.” Comput. Concr., 5(4), 343–358.
Rousseau, J., Frangin, E., Marin, P., and Daudeville, L. (2009). “Multidomain finite and discrete elements method for impact analysis of a concrete structure.” Eng. Struct., 31(11), 2735–2743.
SALOME [Computer software]. ⟨http://www.salome-platform.org/⟩.
SpherePadder++ [Computer software]. ⟨https://subversion.assembla.com/svn/spherepadder/trunk⟩.
Torre-Casanova, A. (2012). “Account for steel-concrete bond in simulation of industrial structures.” Ph.D. thesis, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan, Cachan Cedex, France (in French).
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
©2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Oct 2, 2015
Accepted: Aug 5, 2016
Published online: Oct 28, 2016
Published in print: Feb 1, 2017
Discussion open until: Mar 28, 2017
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.