Shear-sliding behavior of masonry: Numerical micro-modeling of triplet tests

Masonry is a composite material, whose behavior is strongly influenced by the presence of vertical and horizontal mortar joints, weak elements along which the shear failure usually occurs. The scope of the present work was to investigate factors that could affect the shear-sliding behavior of masonry, by performing numerical simulations of...

Testing and modelling of micro cement paste cube under indentation splitting

Cement paste is the glue that holds concrete together and any improvements in material performance will come from its microstructure. For better understanding and predicting its elastic properties and fracture performance, more and more studies are carried out based on micromechanics simulations. However, the predicted results can be hardly...

Organizing an international blind prediction contest for improving a guideline for the nonlinear finite elements analysis of concrete structures

At the previous EURO-C conference, a guideline for nonlinear finite analysis and safety assessment of concrete structures was presented. This guideline is a results of a cooperation between the Delft University of Technology, the University of Parma and the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment. The nonlinear finite element...

Modeling water absorption in cement-based composites with SAP additions

The ability of Superabsorbent Polymers (SAP) to block water flow along cracks in cement-based materials has become an attractive feature of these admixtures. The diminution of fl w rates in such composites are attributed to the capacity of the SAPs to absorb water and swell in the crack, but no evidence exists in literature that indicates one or...

Multi-scale modelling of the mechanics of concrete based on the cement paste properties

The mechanical response of concrete is complex and as other composite materials, multiscale modelling has the potential for modeling its macroscopic behavior. This paper presents an upscaling methodology for the model-ling of the concrete mechanical properties. The suggested formulation starts from a known chemical and mechanical set of...

Non-proportional loading for 3-D stress situations in Sequentially Linear Analysis

This article presents a new non-proportional loading strategy for Sequentially Linear Analysis (SLA), which is a robust secant stiffness based procedure for nonlinear finite element analysis of quasi-brittle materials, like concrete and masonry. The strategy is based on finding the principal planes for a total strain based fixed cracking model,...