Micromechanical study of concrete materials with interfacial transition zone
Abstract
This thesis describes analytical and finite element micromechanical studies for investigating the mechanical behavior of concrete materials. A concrete material is treated as a three phase composite consisting of aggregate, bulk paste and an interfacial transition zone around the aggregate. Experimental work on the microstructure of concrete has demonstrated the existence of interfacial transition zone and that this is the weakest link in the composite system of concrete material. Hence, the main focus of this thesis is to understand the role of the interfacial transition zone on the overall mechanical behavior of concrete materials. A four phase composite model consisting of aggregate, ITZ, bulk paste and an equivalent homogeneous medium is proposed to represent the concrete material. Analytical solutions are derived for the overall elastic moduli of the four phase composite model. The effects of volume fraction and the elastic moduli of the transition zone on the overall elastic moduli are investigated. The results obtained using the analytical model are in good agreement with those obtained from experiments. Analytical stress solutions are also derived for the four phase composite model subjected to uniaxial compression in two and three dimensions. The stress concentration and the tensile stress development in the interfacial transition zone are investigated. The effect of imperfect shear interfacial bond on the overall elastic moduli and on the stresses in the transition zone is also investigated. Basic concepts of damage mechanics are applied to model the damage in the transition zone. The effect of local damage in the transition zone on the overall damage in a concrete material is illustrated. For the specific case of uniaxial compression, the pre-peak stress-strain curves are generated. Computational analysis of micromechanical models of concrete materials requires efficient finite elements. This thesis proposes the use of hybrid finite elements for the analysis of micromechanical models of concrete materials. The developed finite elements are used in conjunction with the smeared crack constitutive model to study the fracture propagation. The computational tools used in this study are implemented in a general purpose object-oriented finite element platform PFE++. The finite element analyses of the micromechanical models demonstrate that the presence of the ITZ accelerates the fracture initiation and propagation in concrete materials.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Chen, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Civil engineering|Materials science
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