Abstract
This review of the added value of multi-scale modeling of concrete is based on three representative examples. The first one is concerned with the analysis of experimental data, taken from four high-dynamic tests. The structural nature of the high-dynamic strength increase can be explained by using a multi-scale model. It accounts for the microstructure of the specimens. The second example refers to multi-scale thermoelastic analysis of concrete pavements, subjected to solar heating. A sensitivity analysis with respect to the internal relative humidity (RH) of concrete has underlined the great importance of the RH for an assessment of the risk of microcracking of concrete. The third example deals with multi-scale structural analysis of a real-scale test of a segmental tunnel ring. It has turned out that multi-scale modeling of concrete enables more reliable predictions of crack opening displacements in tunnel segments than macroscopic models taken from codes of practice. Overall, it is concluded that multi-scale models have indeed a significant added value. However, its degree varies with these examples. In any case, it can be assessed by means of a comparison of the results from three sources, namely, multi-scale structural analysis, conventional structural analysis, and experiments.
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Acknowledgements
Financial support by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (No. 2021YFE0114100) and by the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF) of Austria (No. CN 11/2021), jointly provided for the project “Intense Upgrades of the New Austrian Tunnelling Method (NATM) and Demonstration of its Applicability to High-Quality Urban Development”, is gratefully acknowledged. In addition, the authors are indebted to the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51908424, U1934210) and the Shanghai Pujiang Program (Nos. 19PJ1409700, 20PJ1406100) for financial upport of this work.
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Zhang, J., Binder, E., Wang, H. et al. On the added value of multi-scale modeling of concrete. Front. Struct. Civ. Eng. 16, 1–23 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11709-021-0790-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11709-021-0790-0