Cracking Propagation in Concrete Bloc Exposed to Cryogenic Temperature

Abstract

In order to investigate the cracking propagation in the concrete bloc exposed to low temperature, The ANSYS finite element code has been employed for performing a sequential, non linear, transient thermal-structural analysis, taking into account the thermal dependent properties of the concrete as thermal conductivity and specific heat. Temperature distribution data of thermal analysis is required in the coupled field analysis finally to obtain and analyze thermal stresses. An original concept based on three dimensional stress states of the integrations points in each finite element is described. The global relative crack density (GRCD) is suggested to denote the cracking state of the entire concrete bloc, which may serve as an appropriate index to evaluate the overall deterioration level of the structure.