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http://dx.doi.org/10.12989/cac.2015.15.2.305

Mesoscale computational simulation of the mechanical response of reinforced concrete members  

Wang, Licheng (State Key Laboratory of Simulation and Regulation of Water Cycle in River Basin, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research)
Bao, Jiuwen (State Key Laboratory of Coastal and Offshore Engineering, Dalian University of Technology)
Publication Information
Computers and Concrete / v.15, no.2, 2015 , pp. 305-319 More about this Journal
Abstract
On mesoscopic level, concrete can be treated as a three-phase composite material consisting of mortar, aggregates and interfacial transition zone (ITZ) between mortar and aggregate. A lot of research has confirmed that ITZ plays a crucial role in the mechanical fracture process of concrete. The aim of the present study is to propose a numerical method on mesoscale to analyze the failure mechanism of reinforced concrete (RC) structures under mechanical loading, and then it will help precisely predict the damage or the cracking initiation and propagation of concrete. Concrete is meshed by means of the Rigid Body Spring Model (RBSM) concept, while the reinforcing steel bars are modeled as beam-type elements. Two kinds of RC members, i.e. subjected to uniaxial tension and beams under bending, the fracture process of concrete and the distribution of cracks, as well as the load-deflection relationships are investigated and compared with the available test results. It is found that the numerical results are in good agreement with the experimental observations, indicating that the model can successfully simulate the failure process of the RC members.
Keywords
mesoscale simulation; Rigid Body Spring Model (RBSM); reinforced concrete (RC) member; crack distribution; deflection;
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