Phase-field Modeling of Fracture in Steel Fiber-Reinforced High-Performance concretes

This work aims to enhance the understanding and optimization of the material behavior of fiber-reinforced high-performance concrete (HPC) and ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC), with a focus on failure behavior under cyclic loading. The primary goal is to develop a macroscopic material model that simulates fractures in the HPC matrix and numerically represents fibers, thereby accurately capturing the experimentally observed failure behaviors of fiber-reinforced HPCs. The heterogeneous structure and fiber-matrix interactions at the microscale should be taken into account which dominates the macroscopic behavior of the fiber-reinforced HPCs. A multiscale modeling approach is adopted, integrating distinct numerical models for both the microscale and macroscale. The research follows a step-by-step approach, where each step targets specific objectives: model development, numerical analysis of boundary value problems (BVPs) and calibration/validation with experimental data. Initially, the numerical analysis of steel fiber pullout behavior and virtual experiments using an ellipsoidal unit cell are conducted using a developed micro-mechanical model. Subsequently, a phenomenological (macroscopic) material model for steel fiber-reinforced HPC is developed based on the unit cell calculations. The influence of reinforce fibers are analyzed by simulating the flexural tensile tests on reinforced HPC and UHPC beams with different fiber contents and orientations. The accuracy of these models is validated by comparing the numerical results of BVPs with experimental data.

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