Stochastic micromechanics-based investigations for the damage healing of unsaturated concrete using electrochemical deposition method

Abstract

The (micro-) cracks or (micro-) voids will lead to the damage of concrete material. A stochastic micromechanical framework is proposed to investigate the damage healing of the unsaturated concrete with the electrochemical deposition method. Stochastic micromechanical representations are presented based on the material’s random microstructures. Differential scheme-based multilevel homogenization procedures are proposed to quantitatively predict the effective properties of the repaired concrete. The probability density functions are obtained for the material’s effective properties with an efficient stochastic simulation framework, which is composed of the univariate approximation for the multivariate function, Newton interpolations and Monte Carlo simulations. Numerical examples are employed to verify the proposed stochastic micromechanical framework, which indicates that the presented framework is computationally efficient and capable of describing the electrochemical deposition method healing process for the unsaturated concrete considering the material’s inherent randomness. Finally, the influences of the saturation degrees and the equivalent aspect ratios on the probabilistic behavior of the repaired concrete are discussed on the basis of the proposed models.