Peridynamic modeling of freeze-thaw damage in concrete structures

The peridynamic model introduced in this paper is capable of simulating the entire process of concrete freeze-thaw failure. The model considers the heterogeneity of concrete and a new loading method implementing the freezing force during freeze-thaw cycles is applied. The model is verified by comparing with the damage pattern of a cement paste sample captured in the experiment. Considering concrete's porosity, randomly distributed pre-damage is introduced to simulate freeze-thaw damaging in actual macroscopic concrete. The unique contribution to the field in this work, is the way to couple the damage with loading condition, through diffuse layers, not on mathematical interfaces. HighlightsDamage initiation and crack propagation in freeze-thaw cycling are simulated.The peridynamic simulation adopts a stochastically homogenized material model.Ice crystallization pressure is applied via an equivalent displacement condition.Freezing forces exert on material nodes near crack surfaces to mimic a thin water diffusion layer.Stochastic model retains heterogeneity while cost the same as a homogenized one.