Numerical Investigation of Fire-Induced Spalling of Normal Strength Concrete
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 35, Issue 10
Abstract
It is well known that fire-induced spalling usually occurs to high-strength and ultra-high performance concretes. However, experiments have shown that thermal spalling can also occur to normal strength concrete (NSC) and the high moisture content is conducive to the occurrence of spalling of specimens and structures of NSC. In view of the fact that the spalling analysis of NSC is still lacking and the spalling mechanism of NSC is still not well understood, in this paper, the thermo-chemo-hydro-mechanical behavior of a NSC cube specimen with 90% moisture content exposed to fire is numerically studied at a mesoscale based on the experiment reported in the literature. By analyzing the nonlinear mechanical effects of the vapor pressure and the thermal stress, the spalling mechanism is investigated. It is concluded that, instead of explosive spalling, surface spalling induced by the vapor pressure occurs to the specimen. This conclusion is also confirmed by a strain energy analysis. Furthermore, with the energy analysis, the feature of non-explosive spalling of NSC under fire heating is also explained.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
The financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China with Grant Nos. 51978619 and 52278279 and Beijing Natural Science Foundation with Grant No. 8192033 is greatly acknowledged.
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Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 35 • Issue 10 • October 2023
Copyright
© 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Oct 27, 2022
Accepted: Mar 15, 2023
Published online: Jul 28, 2023
Published in print: Oct 1, 2023
Discussion open until: Dec 28, 2023
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