Prior to initial setting, cement paste may be regarded as a suspension consisting of solid parti- cles and water. Drying leads to a curved water surface in the spaces between the solid particles at the speci- men boundary. A negative…
Prior to initial setting, cement paste may be regarded as a suspension consisting of solid parti- cles and water. Drying leads to a curved water surface in the spaces between the solid particles at the speci- men boundary. A negative capillary pressure is built up which results in shrinkage strain and, possibly, in cracking. The concept of discrete modeling has been used for simulating these processes. In 2D models consisting of circular solid particles and a liquid phase, the drying induced capillary pressure build-up and the corresponding particle displacements are simulated. Under certain conditions, crack initiation due to capillary forces may be observed. The simulations allow the demonstration of different influences on capillary shrink- age cracking.