Simulation of Compressive Failure in Concrete by Focusing on Heterogeneity due to Coarse Aggregates

Abstract

To examine the geometrical effects of aggregates on fracture behavior in concrete, numerical experiments on compressive failure in concrete's meso-structures are carried out in this paper. The method for numerical experiment employed in this paper is capable of simulating compressive failure in quasi-brittle materials involving micro-or meso-scale contact on crack interfaces. First, we explain the modeling of quasi-brittle fracture and the method for numerical experiment. The discrete micro-crack behavior is introduced to a finite element framework in consideration of material inhomogeneity of cement-based materials and by using penalty springs. Then, the basic performance for simulating fracture behavior involving tensile or shear cracks is verified. Finally, the numerical experiments are performed to investigate the effect of heterogeneity due to aggregates in concrete in comparison with the fracture behavior of crushed stone and river stone.