Simulating the effect of microcracks on the diffusivity and permeability of concrete using a three-dimensional model
File(s)
Author(s)
Abyaneh, SD
Wong, HS
Buenfeld, NR
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Concrete inevitably contains microcracks, but their significance on transport properties and long-term
durability is not well established. This is because of difficulties in isolating and evaluating the effect of
microcracks whether by laboratory experiments or computer simulations, owing to their complex
heterogeneous nature. In this paper, a three-dimensional numerical approach to simulate mass transport
properties of concrete containing microcracks is presented. The approach is based on finite-element method
and adopts aligned meshing to improve computational efficiency. The mesostructure of concrete is
represented by aggregate particles that are surface meshed by triangulation and porous cement paste matrix
that are discretised with tetrahedral elements. Microcracks are incorporated as interface elements at the
aggregate-paste interface or at the cement paste matrix spanning neighbouring aggregate particles. The main
advantage of this approach is that the smallest microcracks can be simulated independent of the discretisation
size. The model was first validated by comparing the simulations to available analytical solutions. Then, the
diffusivity and permeability of a range of concretes containing different amounts of microcracking with
increasing complexities were simulated. The results are analysed and discussed in terms of the effect of
microcrack type (bond, matrix), volume fraction, width, specific surface area and degree of percolation on
transport properties.
durability is not well established. This is because of difficulties in isolating and evaluating the effect of
microcracks whether by laboratory experiments or computer simulations, owing to their complex
heterogeneous nature. In this paper, a three-dimensional numerical approach to simulate mass transport
properties of concrete containing microcracks is presented. The approach is based on finite-element method
and adopts aligned meshing to improve computational efficiency. The mesostructure of concrete is
represented by aggregate particles that are surface meshed by triangulation and porous cement paste matrix
that are discretised with tetrahedral elements. Microcracks are incorporated as interface elements at the
aggregate-paste interface or at the cement paste matrix spanning neighbouring aggregate particles. The main
advantage of this approach is that the smallest microcracks can be simulated independent of the discretisation
size. The model was first validated by comparing the simulations to available analytical solutions. Then, the
diffusivity and permeability of a range of concretes containing different amounts of microcracking with
increasing complexities were simulated. The results are analysed and discussed in terms of the effect of
microcrack type (bond, matrix), volume fraction, width, specific surface area and degree of percolation on
transport properties.
Date Issued
2016-04-19
Date Acceptance
2016-03-30
Citation
Computational Materials Science, 2016, 119, pp.130-143
ISSN
0927-0256
Publisher
Elsevier
Start Page
130
End Page
143
Journal / Book Title
Computational Materials Science
Volume
119
Copyright Statement
© 2016, Elsevier. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Sponsor
Commission of the European Communities
Grant Number
264448
Subjects
Materials
0912 Materials Engineering
0204 Condensed Matter Physics
Publication Status
Published