Mesoscale modeling of concrete under dynamic loading conditions

Catastrophic failure of structures under dynamic loadings can be nowadays modelled successfully with a number of different numerical tools and models. Among the most versatile methods is the Finite Element Method in combination with phenomenological plasticity models. In the case of concrete, the material is viewed as homogeneous and the stress-strain response observed in several experiments fitted by mathematical functions. While this approach in most cases derives faithfully the global structural response, the local failure is not matched very well, since these models do not explicitly model crack evolution and propagation, which are most suitably represented on concrete’s mesoscale.

In this work, we demonstrate that a robust, but accurate representation of concrete’s mesostructure, is able to derive realistic crack propagation, branching and failure mechanisms under dynamic loading. The application of a two-scale coupling makes it possible to apply the detailed models in regions where failure is to be expected while keeping the more efficient homogeneous description in less critical parts of the model.