Relating microstructure development to ageing creep: application to VeRCoRs concrete

Author(s): Sanahuja Julien, Huang Shun, Dormieux Luc, Bary Benoît, Lemarchand Éric
Paper category: Proceedings
Book title: Proceedings of the 2nd International RILEM/COST Conference on Early Age Cracking and Serviceability in Cement-based Materials and Structures Volume 1
Editor(s): Stéphanie Staquet and Dimitrios Aggelis
ISBN:978-2-35158-199-5
e-ISBN:978-2-35158-198-8
Publisher: RILEM Publications SARL
Publication year: 2017
Pages: 391-396
Total Pages: 6
Language : English

Abstract: Materials such as concrete exhibit a strong evolution of their microstructure as a function of time. In the case of concrete, this evolution is mainly due to various chemical reactions (the most prominent one, at early age, being hydration of cement grains). This microstructure evolution occurs at micro- and even nano-scales. It induces a time-dependence of physical and mechanical properties observed at the engineering or structure scale. When the considered behaviour does not involve time, such as elasticity, homogenization techniques can be readily used, on a time by time basis, to bridge the scales and estimate the evolution of the effective properties. But when the behaviour is intrinsically time-dependent, such as creep, modelling is much more involved as two processes coexist: microstructure evolution and the time-dependent individual behaviour of phases. This contribution proposes to take advantage of recent advances in micromechanics to investigate the influence of time-dependent microstructure changes, due to hydration, on the effective ageing viscoelastic behaviour of concrete. The aim is to focus on mean field homogenization to keep computing time as low as possible. Model predictions are consistent with experimental basic creep responses on VeRCoRs concrete loaded at various ages, and with a creep recovery experiment, without any parameter fit on these data.

Online publication : 2017
Publication type : full_text
Public price (Euros) : 0.00