Using nano-indentation and microscopy to obtain mechanical properties

Simulation of mechanical behaviour of heterogeneous materials is only possible if the local properties of the components are known. In recent years nano-indentation is being applied on different levels to obtain local mechanical properties. The aim of this paper is to explore various ways to obtain these properties by combining nano-indentation...

Micromechanical study of the interface properties in concrete repair systems

A modelling study of drying shrinkage damage in concrete repair systems

Differential shrinkage between repair material and concrete substrate is considered to be the main cause of premature failure of repair systems (Martinola, Sadouki et al. 2001, Beushausen and Alexander 2007). Magnitude of induced stresses depends on many factors, for example the amount of restraint, moisture gradients caused by different curing...

Impact of surface roughness on the debonding mechanism in concrete repairs

Surface roughness of the existing concrete substrate was considered to have the greatest impact on the bond strength in repair systems. However, the influence of this parameter has been subject for debates in recent years. The effect of concrete surface roughness is not quite clear, nor there exist a clear relation between the surface roughness...

Multiscale lattice fracture model for cement-based materials

Cracking in cement-based materials is usually not easy to predict, because of the complexity of their microstructures. Concrete is a composite material of mortar and coarse aggregates, and mortar consists of cement paste and sands. The fracture processes in these materials are related, and this paper aims to reveal the relationship by developing...

Modeling fracture behavior of cement paste based on its microstructure

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...

Influences of mineral composition of cement on the mechanical properties of cement paste

Multiscale modeling scheme for cementitious materials

3D Simulation of micromechanical behavior of cement paste

Numerical modeling of fracture processes of brittle materials, such as cement paste, mortar, concrete and rocks, started in the late 1960s when the discrete and smeared cracking models were introduced. In the 1990s, Schlangen and van Mier proposed another numerical model to compensate the drawbacks of the discrete and smeared cracking models,...