Abstract—On mesoscopic level, concrete can be treated as a
three-phase composite material consisting of mortar,
aggregates and interfacial transition zone (ITZ) between
mortar and aggregate. A lot of research has confirmed that ITZ
plays a crucial role in the mechanical fracture process of
concrete. The aim of the present study is to propose a numerical
method on meso-scale to analyze the failure mechanism of
reinforced concrete (RC) structures under loading, and then it
will help precisely predict the damage or the microcrack
initiation and propagation of concrete. In this method, concrete
is discretely meshed in terms of the Rigid Body Spring Model
(RBSM), while the reinforcing steel bars are modeled as beam
elements. The fracture process of concrete and the distribution
of microcracks, as well as the load-deformation relationships
are investigated and compared with the available experimental
results. It is found that the numerical results are in good
agreement with the experimental observations, indicating that
the model can successfully simulate the fracture process of
concrete and the distribution of cracks
Index Terms—Meso-scale, rigid body spring model (RBSM),
reinforced concrete structure, numerical modeling
L. C. Wang is with the State Key Laboratory of Coastal and Offshore
Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116024 China
(e-mail: wanglich@dlut.edu.cn).
[PDF]
Cite:L. C. Wang, "Meso-Scale Numerical Modeling of the Mechanical
Behavior of Reinforced Concrete Members," International Journal of Engineering and Technology vol. 5, no. 6, pp. 680-684, 2013.
