Prediction of mechanical properties of cement paste at microscale

Abstract

Prediction of the mechanical properties of cement paste at microscale has been done in this contribution by making use of 3D lattice fracture model. The microstructure of cement paste is simulated by HYMOSTRUC3D first, which is represented in terms of sphere particles. Then the microstructure is converted into a voxel-based image, and a lattice system is constructed based on the image of the microstructure through ImgLat (Image to Lattice). A virtual uni-axial tensile test is configured and the fracture process is simulated by GLAK (Generalized Lattice Analysis Kernel). The outputs of fracture process simulation are the load-displacement diagram and micro-cracks propagation. The load-displacement diagram reveals the tensile behavior of cement paste at microscale, from which the elastic modulus and tensile strength can be obtained. A numerical experiment is carried out to show how the model works, and the final results also demonstrate the feasibility of the above modeling procedure.

Keywords

• 3d lattice modeling
• fracture process simulation
• cement paste
• microscale
• mechanical properties prediction