A discrete element model of concrete under high triaxial loading

A DEM model for soft and hard rocks: Role of grain interlocking on strength

“…The results provided here would obviously need further investigation in terms of micromechanisms; in particular, one could investigate if deformation mechanisms within brittle rock at high confining pressures are equivalent to the types of deformation processes acting within granular materials similar to what have been observed for concrete (Gabet et al, 2008;Tran et al, 2011). Nevertheless, the results discussed here already give additional supports toward the predictive capabilities of the proposed model to reproduce realistic rock behavior in an extensive range of confining pressures.…”

Simulating the behaviour of fresh concrete with the Distinct Element Method – Deriving model parameters related to the yield stress

“…It should be mentioned here that DEM appears specifically attractive as a tool for possible ''virtual concrete laboratory'' because it can be used not only for simulating fresh concrete, but also concrete in hardening and hardened states [14]. As examples, modelling of cracking in concrete due to plastic shrinkage [23] and simulating behaviour of concrete under high triaxial loading [24] should be mentioned here.…”

Mesoscale analysis of failure in quasi-brittle materials: comparison between lattice model and acoustic emission data

“…The second approach relies on a mesoscale description of the material and an explicit description of the heterogeneities in the material. Pioneering works, for example, by Van Mier and co-workers, Herrmann and co-workers or by Zubelewicz and Bazant [18][19][20][21], have been extended to many problems, including dynamic fracturing in impact problems [22], cracking in coupled hydromechanical problems [23], modelling of phase interfaces at crack initiation [24], rock mechanics [25], concrete behaviour under high triaxial loading [26], fracture process of strain-hardening cementitious composites [27], fracture of multiphase particulate materials [28], quasi-static crack propagation [29], structural size effect [30,31] and general failure behaviour of concrete [32,33]. The structural size effect on notched bending beams is properly described using this second approach [30].Grassl and co-workers [34] demonstrated that mesoscale modelling was very efficient at describing not only size effect on the peak load but also the entire load deflection response of bending beams.…”