Thermal Conductivity of Cement Concrete Using Discrete Element Method

Abstract

Consideration on the traditional experiment was time-consuming and required a major investment in human and material resource, even leaded to a great level of error in the process of experiment. The new test method of thermal conductivity of cement concrete based on discrete element method was presented. The cylinder-shaped specimen was created via the mass graduation of the cement concrete, and make sure the numerical model was identical to the truth experiment. The thermal micro-properties composed of density,specific heat, coefficient of linear thermal expansion and thermal resistance were conducted. The applied constant heat flux and constant temperature as the boundaries were investigated via the herein developed model. The results testified that the virtual test data was nearly identical with the analytical values for both different boundaries, and it confirmed that the new numerical model using discrete element method is feasible and reliable. It also supplied a new method on thermal properties study.