Three-Dimensional Mesoscopic Investigation on Quasi-Static Compressive Properties of Coral Aggregate Concrete

摘要

In the study presented in this paper, the quasi-static compressive behaviors of coral aggregate concrete (CAC) were further investigated using the mesoscale modeling method. Three-dimensional (3-D) random particle mesoscale models for CAC with different concrete strength grades were developed and validated through the comparison of numerical and test results. The effect of strength grade on the failure pattern and failure process of CAC subjected to uniaxial compression was numerically studied. The numerical stress-strain curves of CAC obtained by the mesoscale approach were compared with corresponding test results. The results indicate that CAC with a higher strength grade would show obvious brittle failure and the failure surface in concrete would penetrate through coral aggregate. The visible failure formation of CAC is the result of internal microcracks propagating from coral aggregate to the interfacial transition zone (ITZ)/mortar matrix and connecting with each other until main cracks generate in the concrete. Based on the regression analysis of test and numerical data, a new constitutive model for CAC was proposed and verified, which is of great significance for the structure design and performance analysis of CAC engineering. Furthermore, the mesoscale modeling approach has been confirmed for the property prediction of CAC and is expected to be applied further in the field of engineering design.