Mesoscopic numerical simulation of dynamic size effect on the splitting-tensile strength of concrete

Abstract

Under static loadings, concrete has been demonstrated to exhibit obvious size effect due to the heterogeneity of mesoscopic composition. Under dynamic loadings, the strain rate effect has a significant influence on the failure of concrete. It is therefore of great importance to explore the size effect of concrete under dynamic loadings. In this study, the focus is on the size effect in dynamic splitting-tensile strength of concrete. A mesoscopic numerical model for the simulation of the splitting-tensile failure and size effect at different strain rates (10−5/s ∼ 200/s) was established. The mesoscopic simulation results indicate that the size effect on the dynamic splitting-tensile strength of concrete has an obvious discrepancy with the static one. There is a critical strain rate in dynamic splitting-tensile strength of concrete. As the applied strain rate below the critical strain rate the size effect behavior is restrained and weakened gradually with the addition of strain rate. As the applied strain rate exceeds the critical strain rate the dynamic strength enhances linearly as the structural size increases. Furthermore, considering the contribution of strain rate on the dynamic size effect, a Static and Dynamic unified Size Effect Law (i.e. SD-SEL) for splitting-tensile strength of concrete was developed. The proposed SD-SEL was verified by the numerical results and the available test data.