SIMULATION OF PHYSICAL AND MECHANICAL PROCESSES IN CONCRETE FLOORS AND SLABS

Cracks in concrete floors can be caused by many mechanisms. Thermal effects, internal shrinkage, drying, mechanical loading are all aspects that can lead to cracking. These cracks can cause failure. More often the cracks will be a problem for the durability aspects, water tightness and aesthetics. Cracks can be prevented and controlled by proper design of the concrete mixture, reinforcement and geometry. To check the design of a structure on the risk of cracks due to physical and mechanical phenomena described above, the stresses occurring in concrete should be made available to the engineer. The development of user-friendly software is an excellent way to provide this knowledge to the engineer. FEMMASSE developed a simulation tool called the module HEAT. With this module the engineer can simulate the physical and mechanical in young and old concrete. This model combines the effects of drying shrinkage with autogenous shrinkage, thermal dilation and external loads by using the state parameter approach. In this paper the theory used in the model will be explained. An outline will be given of the computer program. In an example the effect of the design of a structure on the risk of cracks will be presented.

• INTRODUCTION

• THEORY OF SHRINKAGE IN CONCRETE

• HEAT MODULE

• EXAMPLE OF A CONCRETE FLOOR

• FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS

• CONCLUSIONS

• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

• REFERENCES