An Assessment of Compressive Size Effect of Plane Concrete Using Combination of Micro-Plane Damage Based Model and 3D Finite Elements Approach

Abstract

In recent years, the material behavior dependence of laboratory concrete specimens built with the same concrete mixture under the same load conditions to their geometrical sizes is well established. This phenomenon which is observed not only in concrete but also in most quasi-brittle materials such as rock, ceramic or composite materials is now called as size effect. Many of the existing structural analyzing codes are not able to consider this important feature of concrete structures especially under compressive loadings. However we know that the main purpose of concrete application in structural members is to resist compression. The aim of this study is to show the ability of author's recently developed 3D finite elements code equipped with the proposed author's newly micro-planes damage based model for considering of compressive size effect of plane concrete. To do so, two different sizes of cubic concrete specimens are modeled with mentioned code under the uniaxial compressive test and their fracture mechanisms, pre-peak and post-peak strain-stress paths are investigated. Obtained results reveal the good coincidence with experimental evidences. In fact, the combination of proposed micro-planes damage based model and developed presented 3D finite elements technique creates a powerful numerical tool to capture and predict precisely strain localization and fracture mechanism in the specimens and consequently to assess properly the compressive size effect of plane concrete in analysis and design.