Study on Macroscopic and Mesoscopic Mechanical Behavior of CSG based on Inversion of Mesoscopic Material Parameters

Abstract

Abstract Cement Sand and Gravel (CSG) is a low-cost, environment-friendly composite material mixed of unscreened aggregate, cement, fly ash and water, and its properties differ from ordinary concrete due to different aggregate characteristics. In order to investigate the effect of aggregate characteristics on the mechanical behavior of CSG, this paper used numerical simulation method to divide the CSG into aggregate unit, cement mortar unit and interface unit at the mesoscopic level and randomly generate aggregate, then used laboratory uniaxial compression test results to inverse the said mesoscopic component parameters, and finally verified the rationality of mesoscopic numerical simulation. Based on the inversed parameters, the numerical simulation test of different aggregate grading was carried out and analyzed. The results showed that: (1) From the perspective of macroscopic mechanical properties, as the sand ratio increased, the aggregate occupancy and the peak stress decreased; under the same aggregate occupancy (the same sand ratio), the stress peak became higher with the improvement of aggregate grading (aggregates of small particle size increased); (2) At the mesoscopic level, the crack of CSG usually appeared on the interface and around the aggregate; the smaller the sand ratio was, the higher the aggregate occupancy was, the more obvious the stress concentration was, and the earlier the cracking of the test piece was, but there were many aggregates, so the eventual failure time was delayed. These research results can provide theoretical basis for engineering design and construction.