Abstract
The use of self-consolidating concrete and advanced pumping system enables efficient construction of super high-rise buildings; however, risks such as clogging or even bursting of pipeline still exist. To better understand the fresh concrete pumping mechanisms in detail, the discrete element method is employed in this paper for the numerical simulation of local pumping problems. By modeling the coarse aggregates as rigid clumps and appropriately defining the contact models, the concrete flow in representative pipeline units is well revealed. Important factors related to the pipe geometry, aggregate geometry and pumping condition were considered during a series of parametric studies. Based on the simulation results, their impact on the local pumping performance is summarized. The present work demonstrates that the discrete element simulation offers a useful way to evaluate the influence of various parameters on the pumpability of fresh concrete.
Highlights
The growing peak of landmark buildings, such as the Shanghai Tower (632 m high), Burj Khalifa (828 m) and the Jeddah Tower, is attributable to the continuous theoretical research and technical development in the field of civil engineering
In the two figures below, the simulation results of four different pipe units are demonstrated
The present paper reports the discrete element method (DEM) modeling and simulation of the pumping behavior of self-consolidating concrete at a local level, considering different situations of concrete pushed through a pipeline unit
Summary
The growing peak of landmark buildings, such as the Shanghai Tower (632 m high), Burj Khalifa (828 m) and the Jeddah Tower (planned to be over 1000 m), is attributable to the continuous theoretical research and technical development in the field of civil engineering. The fluid phase represents the mortar and the particle suspension models the aggregates; the flow of mortar is mainly simulated according to CFD and the motion of discrete particles is tracked, with or without further considering the interactions between particles (see, e.g., [33,34,35,36,37]) This way of treating multi-phase material has been considered in many other topics where the interaction between different phases is significant (see, e.g., the research on gas–solid separation [38], on blood flow [39,40], on fracturing solids [41], etc.). The main part of paper consists of an introduction of the fundamentals of DEM, the details of modeling and the numerical simulation of representative cases
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