The safety of double wall Concrete Containment Buildings (CCBs) primarily depends on the integrity of concrete. The delayed deformations of concrete induced by creep and shrinkage cause the loss of pre-stress that may reduce the air-tightness of the CCB internal…
The safety of double wall Concrete Containment Buildings (CCBs) primarily depends on the integrity of concrete. The delayed deformations of concrete induced by creep and shrinkage cause the loss of pre-stress that may reduce the air-tightness of the CCB internal wall in accidental conditions. Creep of concrete is a complex phenomenon and its rate depends on several factors among which microcracking is of major significance. To be able to represent effectively creep/microcracking couplings in concrete with a mesoscale numerical model, a reliable damage model has to be primarily defined. The phase field method for the modeling of fracture in brittle materials implemented in the finite element software Cast3m is chosen as a basis. The interest of the study is to identify consistent phase-field parameters for mortar and cement paste. The study is carried out by comparison of experimental and numerical three-point notched bending tests using experimental elastic properties and boundary conditions measured with Digital Image Correlation (DIC). Parameter identification is performed using DIC measurements on three-point notched beam bending tests and validated in 3D cases.