Modeling fracture behavior of cement paste based on its microstructure

Abstract

Concrete is a composite construction material, which is composed primarily of coarse aggregates, sands and cement paste. The fracture processes in concrete are complicated, because of the multiscale and multiphase nature of the material. In the past decades, comprehensive effort has been put to study the cracks evolution in concrete, both experimentally and numerically. One essential step to solve the multiscale modeling problem for concrete is to figure out the relation between the mechanical performance and its microstructure. As cement paste is the most complicated component in concrete, it is investigated in detail in this paper. The modeling procedure developed for cement paste is also valid for mortar and concrete, but at a higher scale. Two numerical models are involved in this procedure: the HYMOSTRUC3D model to simulate the microstructure of cement paste, and the 3D lattice fracture model to evaluate the mechanical performance of the microstructure.Structural EngineeringCivil Engineering and Geoscience