Thermo-hygro-mechanical meso-scale analysis of concrete as a viscoelastic-damaged material

Purpose – Knowledge of the behavior of concrete at mesoscale level requires, as a fundamental aspect, to characterize aggregates and specifically, their thermal properties if fire hazards (e.g. spalling) are accounted for. The assessment of aggregates performance (and, correspondingly, concrete materials made of aggregates, cement paste and ITZ – interfacial transition zone) is crucial for defining a realistic structural response as well as damage scenarios. Design/methodology/approach – It is here assumed that concrete creep is associated to cement paste only and that creep obeys to the B3 model proposed by Bazˇant and Baweja since it shows good compatibility with experimental results and it is properly justified theoretically. Findings – First, the three-dimensionality of the geometric description of concrete at the meso-level can be appreciated; then, creep of cement paste and ITZ allows to incorporate in the model the complex reality of creep, which is not only a matter of fluid flow and pressure dissipation but also the result of chemical-physical reactions; again, the description of concrete as a composite material, in connection with porous media analysis, allows for understanding the hygro-thermal and mechanical response of concrete, e.g. hygral barriers due to the presence of aggregates can be seen only at this modelling level. Finally, from the mechanical viewpoint, the remarkable damage peak effect arising from the inclusion of ITZ, if compared with the less pronounced peak when ITZ is disregarded from the analysis, is reported. Originality/value – The fully coupled 3D F.E. code NEWCON3D has been adopted to perform fully coupled thermo-hygro-mechanical meso-scale analyses of concrete characterized by aggregates of various types and various thermal properties. The 3D approach allows for differentiating each constituent (cement paste, aggregate and ITZ), even from the point of view of their rheologic behaviour. Additionally, model B3 has been upgraded by the calculation of the effective humidity state when evaluating drying creep, instead than using approximate expressions. Damage maps allows for defining an appropriate concrete mixture to withstand spalling and to characterize the coupled behaviour of ITZ as well.