A discrete element model of concrete for cyclic loading

•The discrete element method (DEM) is used to develop a cyclic model of concrete.•A multi-phase DE model is developed to include the effect of the ITZ.•A micro-mechanical damage model is formulated to handle stress reversals.•​Damage is characterized in the micro-mechanical level, and visualized thr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Computers & structures 2018-02, Vol.196, p.173-185
Main Authors: Sinaie, Sina, Ngo, Tuan Duc, Nguyen, Vinh Phu
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Computer simulation
Concrete
Crack propagation
Cyclic loading
Cyclic loads
Damage assessment
Damage model
Discrete element method
Earthquakes
Materials fatigue
Mathematical models
Residual strength
Stress-strain curves
Stress-strain relationships
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Summary:•The discrete element method (DEM) is used to develop a cyclic model of concrete.•A multi-phase DE model is developed to include the effect of the ITZ.•A micro-mechanical damage model is formulated to handle stress reversals.•​Damage is characterized in the micro-mechanical level, and visualized through cracks.•An in-house GPU-based computer program is used to reduce the computation runtime. This paper takes advantage of the discrete element method to develop a model of concrete for cyclic simulations. For this purpose, a micro-mechanical damage model that also allows stress-reversals is formulated for inter-particle bonds. Moreover, a multi-phase implementation of the discrete element method is developed and used for two distinct reasons. First, to characterize aggregate and mortar particles separately. Second, to allow the effect of the interfacial transition zone to be taken into account. A strict validation approach is taken in this work, whereby the developed model is only calibrated against monotonic stress-strain curves and then evaluated for its performance under cyclic loading. Simulation results are constantly compared against experimental values. These comparisons illustrate the capability of the model to predict cyclic properties of concrete. Progression of damage is discussed in terms of numerical variables and also through the visualization of force chains and crack propagation.
ISSN:0045-7949
1879-2243
DOI:10.1016/j.compstruc.2017.11.014