Numerical Simulation of Concrete Mix Structure and Detection of its Elastic Stiffness

Abstract

Concrete mix stiffness (CM) primarily relies on its ingredients, which mainly consists of stone aggregate and mortar. To analyse the role of the components of CM on its properties a numerical simulation of CM structure is conducted. Within the scope of this study, the structure and the properties of CM are simulated using ANSYS code to apply the finite element method (FEM). The size of aggregate is modelled using direct random nodes and elements and the problem is approximated as two-dimensional plane one. Different ratios of aggregate and mortar were considered to determine their influence on the stiffness of CM. The CM is treated as bi-composite and subjected to compressive loading. For determining the influence of the proportion of stone aggregate on the stiffness of CM, the used specimens only differ in the amount of stone aggregate and their shapes. Although the stone aggregates are assumed to be of cylindrical shapes (plane conditions), the compressive stiffness of CM works well with the mixture rule.