Influence of surface cracks on temperature response of concrete under constant climate environment

Abstract

By simulating constant climate environment, the internal temperature response tests of concrete were carried out considering the influences of different crack width and depth conditions. Besides, the ANSYS finite-element software was used to simulate the internal temperature response of concrete. The results revealed that the temperature response of concrete with crack and without crack shows a similar trend. Moreover, the temperature response rate is fast in the initial stage and decreases with time. When the crack form is the same, the smaller the water–cement ratio is, the faster the temperature response rate is. In addition, the temperature response rate increases with the increase of crack width and depth, but the effect of crack depth on temperature response is more significant than that of crack width. For concrete with the different water–cement ratio, the higher the water–cement ratio is, the more obvious the effect of cracks on temperature response is. The influence scope of crack on concrete temperature response is determined through numerical simulation, and the calculation model for influence scope of crack is also established.

Keywords:

• Concrete
• crack width
• crack depth
• water–cement ratio
• temperature response

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge the financial supports from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51408192) and the Fundamental Research Fund for the Central Universities (No. 2015B21214).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.