Georges Nahas

Effects of early-age thermal behaviour on damage risks in massive concrete structures

At early age, temperature in massive concrete structures may reach over 70°C because hydration is an exothermic chemical reaction. Temperature evolution (increasing followed by decreasing temperature) can lead to damage risks in the short and long term. Firstly, cracking due to self-restrained strains (essentially thermal strains) can occur (which increase the transport properties and so the kinetics of degradation); and secondly, delayed ettringite formation can appear. In addition, if autogenous and thermal strains are restrained, compressive stresses and then tensile stresses increase, which can cause crossing cracks. However, this paper will not deal with these phenomena. In the first part, sensitivity to delayed ettringite formation and early age cracks by self-restrained strains are studied with regards to the environmental conditions by a numerical approach. This part shows that the external temperature has a significant impact on the maximal temperature reached, but that the temperature difference between the core and the surface is mainly impacted by the wind velocity. Then, a parametric study on the effect of the variation of thermal properties at early age has been achieved and shows that it needs to be taken into account. Finally, visco-elastic mechanical calculations show the impact of thermal property variation on the stresses generated by self restraint.

A mesoscopic model for a better understanding of the transition from diffuse damage to localized damage

ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to present a modelling of mechanical behaviour of concrete on a mesoscopic scale. Concrete is considered as a bi-phasic material where the cement paste and the aggregates are described with their own mechanical characteristics. Firstly, the model is studied in two dimensions in order to optimize the geometrical model of the inner structure of concrete in terms of the meshing strategy and the smallest size of the aggregate to be taken into account. The model shows interesting results on the transition from diffuse to localized damage and is able to reproduce dilatancy in compression. Finally, results of the three-dimensional model are shown in tension.

Effective Permeability and Transfer Properties in Fractured Porous Media

Mesoscale analyses of cracked porous volumes are performed. The fluid flows through a multiphase volume comprising one macro-crack, macro-pores and random micro-porous solid inclusions. Mesostructures are defined by thresholding of spatially correlated Gaussian random fields.Transport through macropores and crack, as well as the diffusion in micro-porous solid inclusions, are taken into account. Homogeneous (without cracks) porous volumes illustrated the asymptotical behaviors. The corresponding macroscopic permeability tensors are obtained and correlated with the geometrical/statistical properties of the analyzed porous systems. A new equivalent electrical scheme, including shunt resistance, is proposed to evaluate the apparent diffusion coefficient. Macro-cracked porous volumes are then investigated.The increases in mass flux due to the crack, as well as the mass/energy exchanges with the surrounding porous medium, are quantified by direct numerical simulation. A drying region due to the macrocrack was illustrated and the corresponding apparent permeability was identified. For different geometrical configurations (macro-porosity, micro-porosity, macro-crack orientation and aperture) we quantify the macropore –crack interlink by comparing such structure with structure without possible flow between the macro-crack and the porous structure.The equivalence scheme between mass flow in cracked porous media and heat flow in porous media was underlined.

Analysis of cracking due to shrinkage restraint on the mechanical behaviour of reinforced concrete

Shrinkage may lead to tensile stresses and cracking in reinforced concrete structures due to several mechanisms: gradients of drying shrinkage, restraint of autogeneous and drying shrinkage by reinforcement or concrete members of different thickness or ages etc. This contribution focuses on the effect of drying shrinkage on the behavior of concrete tie members, with a focus on the restraint by reinforcement. It is showed that, if it is not taken into account, numerical simulations show an overestimation of cracking and force at first crack when submitted to uniaxial tension when compared to experimental results. Besides, an appropriate interface model should be also introduced in order to be relevant.