Combined experimental and numerical study of uniaxial compression failure of hardened cement paste at micrometre length scale

Hongzhi Zhang, Yading Xu*, Yidong Gan, Ze Chang, Erik Schlangen, Branko Šavija

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

53 Citations (Scopus)
54 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The aim of this work is to investigate the mechanical performance of hardened cement paste (HCP) under compression at the micrometre length scale. In order to achieve this, both experimental and numerical approaches were applied. In the experimental part, micrometre sized HCP specimens were fabricated and subjected to uniaxial compression by a flat end tip using nanoindenter. During the test, the load-displacement curves can be obtained. In the modelling part, virtual micrometre sized specimens were created from digital material structures obtained by X-ray computed tomography. A computational compression test was then performed on these virtual specimens by a discrete lattice fracture model using the local mechanical properties calibrated in the authors' previous work. A good agreement is found between the experimental and numerical results. The approach proposed in this work forms a general framework for testing and modelling the compression behaviour of cementitious material at the micrometre length scale.

Original languageEnglish
Article number105925
Number of pages15
JournalCement and Concrete Research
Volume126
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2019

Bibliographical note

Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.

Keywords

  • Compressive strength
  • Hardened cement paste
  • Lattice modelling
  • Micromechanics
  • Nanoindenter

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Combined experimental and numerical study of uniaxial compression failure of hardened cement paste at micrometre length scale'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this