• Computers and Concrete
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.521-532
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• 2021

Present paper focuses on the modeling of size effect on the compressive strength of normal concrete with the application of Discrete Element Method (DEM). Test specimens with different size and shape were cast and uniaxial compressive strength test was performed on each sample. Five different concrete mixes were used, all belonging to a different normal strength concrete class (C20/25, C30/37, C35/45, C45/55, and C50/60). The numerical simulations were carried out by using the PFC 5 software, which applies rigid spheres and contacts between them to model the material. DEM modeling of size effect could be advantageous because the development of micro-cracks in the material can be observed and the failure mode can be visualized. The series of experiments were repeated with the model after calibration. The relationship of the parallel bond strength of the contacts and the laboratory compressive strength test was analyzed by aiming to determine a relation between the compressive strength and the bond strength of different sized models. An equation was derived based on Bazant's size effect law to estimate the parallel bond strength of differently sized specimens. The parameters of the equation were optimized based on measurement data using nonlinear least-squares method with SSE (sum of squared errors) objective function. The laboratory test results showed a good agreement with the literature data (compressive strength is decreasing with the increase of the size of the specimen regardless of the shape). The derived estimation models showed strong correlation with the measurement data. The results indicated that the size effect is stronger on concretes with lower strength class due to the higher level of inhomogeneity of the material. It was observed that size effect is more significant on cube specimens than on cylinder samples, which can be caused by the side ratios of the specimens and the size of the purely compressed zone. A limit value for the minimum size of DE model for cubes and cylinder was determined, above which the size effect on compressive strength can be neglected within the investigated size range. The relationship of model size (particle number) and computational time was analyzed and a method to decrease the computational time (number of iterations) of material genesis is proposed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2019.05a
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• pp.67-68
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• 2019

The mechanical and durability characteristics of concrete structures depend on the construction environment, material conditions, design conditions, and temperature and humidity environment after casting. However, wired communicati-on sensors which are mainly used in the field have many limitations in their usability and monitoring. In this study, all temperature and humidity data measured from embedded sensors are monitored via a wireless sensor network. Based on the measured temperature data, the predicted compressive strength of the concrete was compared with the actual compressive strength. As a result, The error between predicted strength and experimental strength has decreased over time.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.151-158
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• 2019

The sustainable development principle of replacing natural resources with renewable material is an important research topic. In this study, waste LCD (liquid crystal display) glass powder was used to replace cement (0%, 10%, 20% and 30%) through a volumetric method using three water-binder ratios (0.47, 0.59, and 0.71) to make cement mortar. The compressive strength was tested at the ages of 7, 28, 56 and 91 days. The test results show that the compressive strength increases with age but decreases as the water-binder ratio increases. The compressive strength slightly decreases with an increase in the replacement of LCD glass powder at a curing age of 7 days. However, at a curing age of 91 days, the compressive strength is slightly greater than that for the control group (glass powder is 0%). When the water-binder ratios are 0.47, 0.59 and 0.71, the compressive strength of the various replacements increases by 1.38-1.61 times, 1.56-1.80 times and 1.45-2.20 times, respectively, during the aging process from day 7 to day 91. Furthermore, a prediction model of the compressive strength of a cement mortar with waste LCD glass powder was deduced in this study. According to the comparison between the prediction analysis values and test results, the MAPE (mean absolute percentage error) values of the compressive strength are between 2.79% and 5.29%, and less than 10%. Thus, the analytical model established in this study has a good forecasting accuracy. Therefore, the proposed model can be used as a reliable tool for assessing the design strength of cement mortar from early age test results.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.227-244
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• 2020

Earthen structures have an excellent bioclimatic performance, but they are vulnerable against earthquakes. In order to investigate the edification process and costs, a full-scale rammed soil house was constructed in 2004. In 2016-2019, it was studied its seismic damage, durability and degradation process. During 2004-2016, the house presented a relatively good seismic performance (M_w=5.6-6.4). The damaged cover contributed in the fast deterioration of walls. In 2018 it was observed a partial collapse of one wall due to recent seismicity (M_w=5.6-6.1). The 15-year-old samples presented a reduced compressive strength (0.040 MPa) and a minimum moisture (1.38%). It is estimated that the existing house has approximately a remaining 20% of compressive strength with a degradation of about 5.4% (0.0109 MPa) per year (considering a time frame of 15 years) if compared to the new soil samples (0.2028 MPa, 3.52% of moisture). This correlation between moisture and compressive strength degradation was compared with the study of new soil samples at the same construction site and compared against the extracted samples from the 15-year-old house. At 7-14-days, the specimens presented a similar compressive strength as the degraded ones, but different moisture. Conversely, the 60-days specimens shown almost five times more strength as the existing samples for a similar moisture. It was observed in new rammed soil that the lower the water content, the higher the compressive/shear strength.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.57-62
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• 2008

Twelve mortars were mixed and tested to explore the effect of gypsum on the compressive strength development and shrinkage strain of alkali-activated mortars. Powder typed sodium silicate and ground granulated blast-furnace slag were employed as alkaline activator and source material, respectively, to produce cementless mortar. The main variables investigated were alkali quality coefficient combining the concentration of activator and main compositions in source material, and the adding amount of gypsum ranged between 1 and 5% with respect to the weight of binder. Initial flow, compressive strength development, modulus of rupture, and shrinkage strain behavior of mortar specimens were measured. In addition, the hydration production of alkali-activated pastes with gypsum was traced using X-ray diffraction and energy-dispersive X-ray analysis combined with scanning electron microscope image. Test results showed that the initial flow of slag-based alkali-activated mortar was little influenced by the adding amount of gypsum. On the other hand, the effect of gypsum on the compressive strength of mortar specimens was dependent on the alkali quality coefficient, indicating that the compressive strength increased with the increase of the adding amount of gypsum until a certain limit, beyond which the strength decreased slowly. Shrinkage strain of mortar tested was little influenced by the adding amount of gypsum because no ettringite as hydration product was generated. However, the adding of gypsum had a beneficial effect on reducing the microcrack in the alkali-activated mortar.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.86 no.2
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• pp.181-195
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• 2023

To predict the rheological behaviours along with the compressive strength of self-compacting concrete that incorporates environmentally friendly ingredients as cement substitutes, a comparative evaluation of machine learning methods is conducted. To model four parameters, slump flow diameter, L-box ratio, V-funnel time, as well as compressive strength at 28 days-a complete mix design dataset from available pieces of literature is gathered and used to construct the suggested machine learning standards, SVM, MARS, and Mp5-MT. Six input variables-the amount of binder, the percentage of SCMs, the proportion of water to the binder, the amount of fine and coarse aggregates, and the amount of superplasticizer are grouped in a particular pattern. For optimizing the hyper-parameters of the MARS model with the lowest possible prediction error, a gravitational search algorithm (GSA) is required. In terms of the correlation coefficient for modelling slump flow diameter, L-box ratio, V-funnel duration, and compressive strength, the prediction results showed that MARS combined with GSA could improve the accuracy of the solo MARS model with 1.35%, 11.1%, 2.3%, as well as 1.07%. By contrast, Mp5-MT often demonstrates greater identification capability and more accurate prediction in comparison to MARS-GSA, and it may be regarded as an efficient approach to forecasting the rheological behaviors and compressive strength of SCC in infrastructure practice.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2012.11a
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• pp.103-105
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• 2012

With blast-furnace slag is a by-product generated when pig iron is produced. It has been used as the concrete admixture due to high reactivity. However, It causes low strength development during early age. In order to make up for this drawback, in this study, we evaluated compressive strength of mortar replaced with high volume blast-furnace slag. Experimental results, Compressive strength of mortar based on blast-furnace slag is affected by cement type, substitution rate of blast-furnace slag and pH after mixing.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2005.05b
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• pp.253-256
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• 2005

This paper is to investigate the mixture proportion, compressive strength and drying. shrinkage of concrete depending on mineral admixtures such as fly ash (FA), blast furnace slag (BS) and cement kiln dust (CKD) under various contents of admixtures. The use of CKD had little effect on strength development at 3 days, while the use of FA and BS lead to similar compressive strength compared with that of control concrete. Concrete with CKD exhibited a reduction of compressive strength at 91 days, meanwhile concrete with FA and BS had a increase compared with that of control concrete. Drying shrinkage of concrete depending on CKD and BS increase compared with that of control concrete about $10\∼20\%$, while the use of FA exhibited reduce compared with that of control concrete about $10\∼15\%$.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.177-183
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• 1999

The major object of this study is to investigate experimentally the experimental equation by the non-destructive testing methods of ultrasonic pulse velocity, rebound number, combined method of ultrasonic pulse velocity and rebound number, maturity which are applicable to the evaluation of compressive strength of concrete at early ages. Also test result of mix are statistically analyzed to infer the correlation coefficient between the maturity and the compressive strength of concrete. The results show good application of Logistic curve for estimating strength development under various curing temperature. The relation between ultrasonic pulse velocity, rebound number, combined method of ultrasonic pulse velocity and rebound number and compressive strength of concrete have low correlation coefficient, but maturity method show good correlation coefficient.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2010.05a
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• pp.89-90
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• 2010

As a result of physical characteristics of using meta-kaolin and alkali accelerator, it was found that higher curing temperature density is favorable to strength development at early age and the higher the age is, the higher, most of the compressive strength gets. Also, I was shown that more than atmospheric curing, steam curing was favorable for development of compressive strength. When the temperature of curing temperature was higher, most of the compressive strengths were higher. Thus, based on this study, it was understood that environmental-friendly chemically combined concrete using meta-kaolin and alkali accelerator can be utilized without using cement.