Use of ANSYS for Thermal Analysis in Mass Concrete

Abstract

With the increasing development of Brazil in recent years, major engineering construction works have been designed and built, particularly those involving large volumes of mass concrete, such as in the case of dams. Mass concrete, due to its large size and volume, presents a considerable temperature rise caused by cement grain hydration. This temperature rise can be sufficient to cause concrete crack and/or cracking, which may lead to serious problems. In this paper, we sought to study heat generation and temperature field in mass concrete through ANSYS software, which uses finite element method to analyze the problem. This program allows temperatures to be checked for different concrete ages. With that, it is possible to evaluate the temperatures obtained and the factors influencing the results in a short period of time at a low cost. With the help of the software, it is possible to check the temperatures for different concrete properties by analyzing them on different concreting days. Therefore, it was possible to establish that the properties of the concrete directly influence the temperature evolution phenomenon.