Analysis of crack propagation in longitudinal beam of high- pile wharf during winter temperature decrease period

Abstract

Ports play an increasingly important role in economic development and are the core strategic advantages that drive regional economic development. As hydraulic structure, the working environment of the wharf is relatively complicated. There are many factors affecting its normal use. Visible or invisible cracks are common in wharf components. Temperature stress change is the main factor for the formation of cracks on the surface of concrete beams. When affected by temperature changes, existing fine cracks will connect, expand, and even penetrate the entire component. It will not only affect the aesthetics of the wharf, but also affect its service life, and bring considerable economic losses to later maintenance. Therefore, it has certain reference value and significance to study on crack propagation for assessment of safety, reliability and durability of engineering structures. In view of this, this paper carries out numerical analysis on crack propagation of reinforced concrete longitudinal beams of a high-piled wharf in China with ABAQUS software and extended finite element method (XFEM). In the simulation process, only temperature drop factor is considered. At the same time, this paper introduces the research progress and some basic theories of XFEM at home and abroad. The results show that the numerical simulation results are similar to the crack opening degree measured by the seam gauge. XFEM can effectively describe the crack propagation in concrete, which is more accurate and feasible than the conventional finite element method (CFEM).