Multiphysical failure processes in concrete: a consistent multiscale homogenization procedure

Durability and strength capabilities of concrete materials are vastly affected by the combined action of temperature and mechanical loading, which give rise to multiphysical failure processes. Such a phenomenon involves complex cracking, degradation and transport mechanisms on different scale lengths of concrete mixtures which, in turn, depend on the particular properties of the different constituents. Thus, the macroscopic observation of relevant concrete mechanical features such as strength, ductility and durability are the result of several different properties, processes and mechanisms which are not only coupled but moreover, depend on multiple scales. Particularly, regarding the pore pressure and thermal actions, most of the degradation processes in concrete are controlled by the heterogeneities of the microscopic scale. In the case of the mechanical actions both the micro and mesoscales play a relevant role. In this context, multiphysical failure processes in cementitious material-based mixtures like concrete can only and fully be understood and accurately described when considering its multiscale and multiconstituent features. In the realm of the theoretical and computational solid mechanics many relevant proposals were made to model the complex and coupled thermo-hydromechanical response behavior of concrete. Most of them are related to macroscopic formulations which account for the different mechanisms and transport phenomena through empirical, dissipative, poromechanical theories. Moreover, although relevant progress was made regarding the formulation of multiscale theories and approaches, none of the existing proposals deal with multiphysical failure processes in concrete. It should be said in this sense that, among the different multiscale approaches for material modeling proposed so far, those based on computational homogenization methods have demonstrated to be the most effective ones due to the involved versatility and accuracy. In this work a thermodynamically consistent semi-concurrent multiscale approach is formulated for modeling the thermo-poro-plastic failure behavior of concrete materials. A discrete approach is considered to represent the RVE material response. After formulating the fundamental equations describing the proposed homogenizations of the thermodynamical variables, the constitutive models for both the skeleton and porous phases are described. Then, numerical analyses are presented to demonstrate the predictive capabilities of the proposed thermodynamically consistent multiscale homogenization procedure for thermo-mechanical failure processes in concrete mixtures

Multiphysical failure processes in concrete: a consistent multiscale homogenization procedure

Durability and strength capabilities of concrete materials are vastly affected by the combined action of temperature and mechanical loading, which give rise to multiphysical failure processes. Such a phenomenon involves complex cracking, degradation and transport mechanisms on different scale lengths of concrete mixtures which, in turn, depend on the particular properties of the different constituents. Thus, the macroscopic observation of relevant concrete mechanical features such as strength, ductility and durability are the result of several different properties, processes and mechanisms which are not only coupled but moreover, depend on multiple scales. Particularly, regarding the pore pressure and thermal actions, most of the degradation processes in concrete are controlled by the heterogeneities of the microscopic scale. In the case of the mechanical actions both the micro and mesoscales play a relevant role. In this context, multiphysical failure processes in cementitious material-based mixtures like concrete can only and fully be understood and accurately described when considering its multiscale and multiconstituent features. In the realm of the theoretical and computational solid mechanics many relevant proposals were made to model the complex and coupled thermo-hydromechanical response behavior of concrete. Most of them are related to macroscopic formulations which account for the different mechanisms and transport phenomena through empirical, dissipative, poromechanical theories. Moreover, although relevant progress was made regarding the formulation of multiscale theories and approaches, none of the existing proposals deal with multiphysical failure processes in concrete. It should be said in this sense that, among the different multiscale approaches for material modeling proposed so far, those based on computational homogenization methods have demonstrated to be the most effective ones due to the involved versatility and accuracy. In this work a thermodynamically consistent semi-concurrent multiscale approach is formulated for modeling the thermo-poro-plastic failure behavior of concrete materials. A discrete approach is considered to represent the RVE material response. After formulating the fundamental equations describing the proposed homogenizations of the thermodynamical variables, the constitutive models for both the skeleton and porous phases are described. Then, numerical analyses are presented to demonstrate the predictive capabilities of the proposed thermodynamically consistent multiscale homogenization procedure for thermo-mechanical failure processes in concrete mixtures

A virtual element and interface based concurrent multiscale method for failure analysis of quasi brittle heterogeneous composites

The use of multiscale schemes for computational failure evaluations of quasi-brittle composites, particularly concrete, has become a promising challenge for evaluating the complex degradation mechanisms at different scales of observations. In the framework of standard finite element procedures, both concurrent and semi-concurrent multiscale procedures have so far been considered for analysing failure behaviour of quasi-brittle materials. When it comes to composite materials like concrete with heterogeneous meso-structures due to the presence of highly irregular inclusions regarding both size and geometry, the material meso-structure critically determines the macroscopic mechanical properties and thus the mechanical response to external loading. In this work a concurrent multiscale method is proposed for numerical analysis of the failure behaviour of heterogeneous and quasi-brittle materials like concrete. This is based on combining a discretization based on the Virtual Element Method (VEM) and Interface Elements (IEs) in the framework of the discrete crack approach using a mixed augmented Lagrangian for the interfaces. Mesoscale numerical simulations of 3 point beam specimens are presented to assess the quality of the proposed concurrent multiscale procedure to accurately and effectively capture the relevant features of their failure mechanisms, highlighting the advantages of using the VEM technology

Stable isotope ratios and aroma profile changes induced due to innovative wine dealcoholisation approaches

The high ethanol level in wine has become an important issue for all the main wine producing countries. Several techniques are available to the wine industry to reduce the ethanol content; among them, the membrane contactors are certainly one of the newest. Very few studies on the effect of this practice on the wine quality and aroma profile and on the stable isotopes composition are available. A pilot and industrial plant equipped with the membrane contactor system were used in the study in the dealcoholisation on several white and red wines. Significant changes for several classes of aroma compounds in both pilot- and industrial-scale experiments were observed, even though these changes were not always in perfect agreement with the sensory evaluation carried out. Finally, modifications on the δ18O of up to 1‰ for 2 %v/v and of up to 4‰ for 8 %v/v ethanol removal were encountered. An increase of δ13C of ethanol of up to 1.1‰ for 2 % and of up to 2.3‰ for 4 % of dealcoholisation rate was also observed. Dealcoholisation via membrane contactor seemed to affect the overall wine composition (aroma and flavour), even though the main concern resided on the alteration of the isotopic composition which could be linked to product authenticity issues