International RILEM Conference on Material Science MATSCI, Aachen 2010 Vol.

II, HetMat 3
CHARACTERIZATION OF CONCRETE BY A MULTISCALE
APPROACH
P. Wriggers, S. Lhnert, Institute of Continuum Mechanics, Leibniz Universitt Hannover, Germany
ABSTRACT: In this paper different length scales that are needed to set up a multiscale model
for concrete are introduced and modeled. Basically three scales are considered: the
microscale, being the cement paste, the mesoscale, being the mortar, and a macroscale, being
the heterogenous material concrete. At each scale a homogenization process is performed in
order to obtain the constituive models for the next scale. The three-dimensional geometrical
models for the cement past, the mortar and the concrete are either taken from CT-scan or they
are generated taking the random structure of aggregates into consideration. The generation
process is based upon Monte Carlos simulation method wherein the aggregate particles are
generated from a certain aggregate size distribution. The model for cement paste.is upscaled
to model pores within a hydrated cement paste (HCP) where the effective constitutive
equations of the cement paste will be used to describe macro cracking in the HCP phase with
pores.
1 INTRODUCTION
Concrete is still a material that is even not fully understood has a highly heterogeneous
microstructure and its composite behavior is exceedingly complex. It includes several length
scales. Thus concrete can be viewed as a heterogeneous material with many constituents at the
different scales. In this paper three different length scales will be introduced and investigated.
The cement past is considered as microscale. The mesoscale is associated with the mortar and
finally the concrete is viewed as macroscale. Models for these different scales exist in the
literature. Cement paste was investigated in e.g. [Xi 98], [Hai06] and [Hai08] using a three-
dimensional model stemming from CT-scans as a basis for a numerical homogenization
procedure that included also inelastic response of the different phases. A model for concrete
based on three-dimensional homogenization was developed in many ways including inelastic
models for the mortar or fracture in different stages.
Reliable predictions of the behaviour of the material based exclusively on experimental
studies have become limited. For obtaining a deeper understanding, theoretical studies based
on micromechanics analysis of the interaction between various components of concrete have
been developed for deducing the macroscopic constitutive behavior of concrete. However, the
microstructure and properties of the individual components of concrete and their effects on
the macroscopic material behaviour have not been taken into account. For such details to be
included into the computational model, concrete needs to be analysed as a multi-scale
composite material where the microstructure is realistically simulated.
Numerical simulations, coupled with theory and experiment, are considered to be an
extremely important tool for successfully examining material properties by means of
computational materials science. In the numerical simulation of concrete at a mesoscopic
level it is evident that several parameters such as the shape, size and distribution of coarse
aggregates within the mortar matrix significantly influence the mechanical behaviour of
concrete. The aim of this work is to generate random mesostructure models of the concrete
material at the mesoscopic level based upon given parameters and probability distribution of
4 WRIGGERS, LHNERT: Characterization of Concrete by a Multiscale Approach
aggregate particles coordinates and sizes. Then, the generated mesostructure models are to be
meshed using an automatic meshing preprocessor for computational testing of the material
with the finite element method (FEM) in order to analyse the effects of the mesostructure
constituents on the macroscopic response of the concrete material including cracking.
Several mesoscopic models of concrete structure have been developed for studying the
influence of material composition on the overall behaviour. Bazant et al. [Baz90] developed a
truss model to simulate realistically the spread of cracking and its localization. Schorn and
Rode [Sch91] studied damage processes of concrete using a framework model. A lattice
model presented in [Sch91] seemed to be a promising tool for the simulation of typical failure
mechanism and crack face bridging in concrete. Another approach for simulating the structure
of concrete by a finite element mesh has been developed in [Wit93]. In this approach,
mechanical and non-mechanical properties can be more realistically simulated for concrete
with different compositions. Wang et al. [Wan99] proposed a procedure for generating
random aggregate structures based on the Monte Carlo random sampling principle and then
developed a method of mesh generation for studying the nonlinear behaviour of concrete.
2 MULTISCAL MODELING
The process of a multiscale formulation is depicted in Figure 2.1. As can be seen, the concrete
is modeled at different length scales using different mechanical models. Based on this
formulation the material behaviour can be described at each length scale. Furthermore a
homogenization process will be introduced as an upscaling procedure to model the next scale.

Fig. 2.1. Multiscale approach.
Concrete at the macro-scale is assumed to consist of mortar, large pores and large grains. The
underlying meso-scale refers to mortar, which consists of smaller grains, smaller pores and
hydrated cement paste (HCP). At the micro-scale of HCP one can distinguish between
International RILEM Conference on Material Science MATSCI, Aachen 2010 Vol. II, HetMat 5
hydration products, unhydrated residual clinker and micro-pores. These products form the
interior structure of HCP and are built up during the hydration process of cement. The
hydration products as well as the unhydrated residual clinker at the micro-level subsume
different phases at the nano scale.

Here, the numerical multi-scale approach
starts at the micro-scale of HCP. The three-
dimensional geometry of HCP is based on a
computer-tomography (CT), which provides
a spatial resolved distribution of the density.
CT-scans of several specimens with an edge
length of 1750m and a resolution of 1m
have been performed by the Bundesanstalt
fr Materialforschung und -prfung in
Berlin, Germany. A part of such a CT-scan is
depicted in Fig. 2.2.
Fig 2.2. CT-scan of the microstructure of cement paste
(Institut fr Bauforschung, RWTH Aachen).

Based on these CT-scans, three-dimensional
finite-element models of the microstructure
are introduced. For most of the calculations
RVEs with an edge length of 64m have
been used, which contain 260,000 finite-
elements and approximately 820,000 DOFs.,
for details see [Hai05] and [Hai08a] With
respect to the theory of Powers and co-
workers one can distinguish between
unhydrated residual clinker, pores and
hydration products. The hydrated part of
HCP is described with respect to a visco-
plastic constitutive equation of Perzyna-type
including isotropic damage. The other parts
of the microstructure are assumed to remain
elastic, see Fig. 2.3. The associated stress
distribution for one computation is depicted
in Fig. 2.4.
Fig 2.3. FE-Modell of the microstructure.
The elastic constitutive data has been obtained through nano-indentation techniques [Ack01]
and is taken directly from the literature. The inelastic constitutive equation for the hydrated
part contains inelastic parameters, which neither can be obtained through experimental tests
nor found in the literature. Therefore one has to solve an inverse problem that yields the
identification of these properties. The necessary experimental tests were done at the Institut
fr Bauforschung (director Prof. Brameshuber), Aachen. The identification is performed
solving an optimization problem. For computational efficiency and robustness a combination
of the stochastic genetic algorithm and the deterministic Levenberg-Marquardt method is
used:
6 WRIGGERS, LHNERT: Characterization of Concrete by a Multiscale Approach

In a first step of the optimization
procedure a pre-optimization within a
genetic algorithm has been carried out in
order to get close to the global minimum
of the objective function.
Once the value of the objective function
falls below a certain threshold value, the
optimization procedure switches to the
more efficient Levenberg-Marquardt
method. This method needs the gradient
of the objective function as well as the
Hessian matrix, both are carried out
numerically through a difference
quotient.
Fig. 2.4. FE-Model stress distribution.
In order to keep the overall computation time within reasonable bounds all calculations are
distributed within a network environment automatically. Hence, a client-server based system
has been implemented that requires a TCP/ IP based network, which is available in almost
every company or research institute.
Within the cement paste, a damage model due to [Lem96] is applied that yields
0
(1 ) = : . D C (2.1)
The scalar variable D describes as internal variable the isotropic damage.
0
C is the
constitutive tensor of the undamaged material. The damage process is governed by the
evolution equation
eq
eq
( )
=

&
S
D

. (2.2)
The damage surface
eq
( ) S describes whether new damage is initiated or not. It depends on
the equivalent strain
eq
. For
eq
( ) 0 < S , no further damage occurs otherwise damage
increases. The damage surface is given in exponential form as
eq eq
0
( ) 1 exp[ ( ) ] = S a D

. (2.3)
with the three material parameters a , und . A typical stress strain response of this model
is provided in Fig. 2.5.
International RILEM Conference on Material Science MATSCI, Aachen 2010 Vol. II, HetMat 7

Fig 2.5. Stress-strain curve of the damage model.
The exponent defines together with the parameter the curvature of the damage
evolution. The cement paste has a medium strength in tension of
2
4 =
N
Z
mm
and a medium
compression strength of
2
103 =
N
D
mm
. Thus the damage law has to be described in different
ways for compression and tension. Here the equivalent strain is modelled by
eq 2 2 2 2
1 1 2
12 (1 2 )I 12 ( 1) (1 2 ) I 12 (1 ) J := + + k k k k k

(2.4)
see [Pee99], / :=
D Z
k is the ratio between tension and compression strength. Furthermore
1
I

and
2
J

are invariants of the strain tensor and its deviatoric part.

For a efficient numerical solution algorithm it is necessary to compute the consistent tangent
operator for this damage law. It leads to an unsymmetric tangent matrix, see [Hai08a].
3 HOMOGENIZATION
Once the objective constitutive parameters have been identified, homogenization is needed.
Based on the finite-element solution, the stresses and the strains can be evaluated.
Subsequently, the effective elastic material properties are calculated numerically. For a
reliable analysis the whole RVE is embedded within a matrix of average stiffness, which is
sometimes referred to as window-method and is similar to the self-consistency method from
analytical micro-mechanics.
For homogenization the averaged stresses and strain that are related to the next level (here
mortar) have to be computed according to
1
( )d
1
( )d

< >:= ,
< >:= .

V
V
x
x
(3.1)
This leads to the effective constitutive tensor
eff
C that related averages strains to averaged
stresses
8 WRIGGERS, LHNERT: Characterization of Concrete by a Multiscale Approach
eff
< >= :< >. C (3.2)
The effective stresses are determined through a finite element simulation. Here special
boundary conditions constant strain in our case - have to be applied at microstructural level.
This leads to a stress and strain distribution in the microstructure that can be averaged over
the RVE volume. Using these stresses and strains the averaging can be performed, see above.
In the first step the elastic parameters are determined based on the mean square approach
2
Makrogesetz
[ ( )] := < > < > .
14243
(3.3)
This yields the effective Youngs
eff
E and effective Poisson ratio
eff
.
Since microstructures of cement
paste have a random distribution
of the constituents several RVEs
are computed in a Monte Carlo
approach. As an example the
probability density W for the
effective Youngs modulus is
depicted in Fig. 3.1 that was
based on a computation with
4600 RVEs.
Fig. 3.1. Probability density of the effective Youngs modulus.

The same results are obtained for the
effective Poissons ratio
eff
. Using this
method a very close agreement with
experimental measured values for cement
paste are obtained, The distribution is close
to a GAUian distribution.
The determination of the effective
parameters related to the inelastic behaviour
of cement paste follows from a computation
using the parameter identification procedure
discussed above, see [Hai05]. These
parameters were used to predict the damage
distribution within the microstructure of
cement paste depicted in Fig. 3.2.
Fig 3.2. FE-Simulation of damage state in the RVE.
International RILEM Conference on Material Science MATSCI, Aachen 2010 Vol. II, HetMat 9
4 COMPUTATION OF MACROCRACKS IN THE MESOSCALE OF HCP
For the subsequent simulation of crack propagation in a RVE consisting of HCP and pores,
the effective material parameters, derived in section 3, have to be incorporated into the
numerical simulation model. Therefore, effective material parameters for Youngs modulus
and for the Poissons ratio are used including the standard deviation as depicted in Fig. 3.1.
Thus at each GAUSSian point a different value is selected for the material parameters. The
GAUSSian distributed random parameters are computed by means of two random numbers r
1
,
r
2
. Hence the GAUSSian distributed effective material parameters for each GAUSS point in
the mesoscale of HCP are defined for the effective values of Youngs modulus by
(4.1)

in the same way the Poisson ratio is defined
as well as the inelastic parameters. This leads
to a randomly distribution of the material
parameters in the HCP as shown in Fig. 4.1.
The so defined mesoscale of HCP is now
investigated using a special finite element
scheme that allows to introduce cracks.
These cracks occuring in the HCP are
modeled in discrete way. The related first test
calculation concentrate on a HCP material
with pores as shown in Fig. 4.2.
Fig 4.1. Random distribution of Youngs modulus.

Considering a given volume fraction of 15%
(rwc =0, 45) a numerical model problem is
set up as depicted in Figure 4.2. It states a
computational model containing pores inside
the RVE. The finite element mesh consists of
11339 three-dimensional volume tetrahedral
finite elements as can be seen from Fig. 4.2.
Fig 4.2. FE-model of the mesoscale HCP.
Numerical results are depicted in Figures 4.3. Herein, only pores and propagating cracks are
shown, while the mesoscale HCP volume mesh and RVE boundaries are hidden. Three-
dimensional pores including two-dimensional crack surface elements are each depicted on the
left side. In order to point out the cracks only two-dimensional crack surface elements are
drawn at the right side of the pores. Each set of two-dimensional elements represents a
geometrical crack surface based on an adaptive refinement procedure as introduced in
[Ree08]. The numerical model includes all computational procedures and crack path
continuity checks presented in [Ree08]. All computations are performed using an explicit
dynamic approach to solve the evolution of the cracks due to a constant strain state. At the
10 WRIGGERS, LHNERT: Characterization of Concrete by a Multiscale Approach
end of adaptive crack propagation one explicit time integration time step extends from less
than one second in the beginning of the calculation to more than 200 seconds for each time
step. This immense increase is related to the various crack path continuity checks. Moreover,
innumerable connectivity verification checks of adaptively introduced finite element entities
have to be processed. Additionally, model restrictions by means of the RVE model
requirements have to be respected. Therefore, no discontinuities, neither pores nor crack
surfaces are permitted on the RVE boundary. This approach is comparable to the window
methods introduced in literature, where the RVE is surrounded by a set of elements excluding
material inhomogeneities, see e.g. [Hai08a]. One can see clearly, that cracks always initiate at
pores while they propagate to adjoining pores. All cracks are limited to a small region inside
the RVE as anticipated. Each crack starts at the exterior of a pore and propagates and extends
to the next pore within very short time periods. Once a first crack initiates, crack propagation
inside the whole volume body occurs in a very short time period.

Fig 4.3. Development of cracks in the three-dimensional RVE of HCP.
5 CONCLUSIONS
The last numerical example shows the abilities of the presented approach to model crack
propagation. In contrast to other crack propagating schemes introduced in literature, the
developed technique enables a geometric crack representation. The discontinuity propagation
direction is based on element local material criteria completely. Additionally, the presented
model enables the simulation of dynamic crack propagation respecting multiple cracks within
the framework of a micro-mechanical RVE simulation including heterogeneous mesoscale
HCP representation. Nevertheless, a complete homogenization process of this meso-scaled
model has to be performed taking additionally into account the presence of sand particles and
a more detailed model of the process zone around the particles. However the simulations tools
to perform these tasks are developed to a certain extend to be able to model microscale and
mesoscale behaviour of complex heterogeneous materials such as concrete. Here new
methodologies based on X-FEM computations seem to be advantageous to be used for single
crack growth in three-dimensional structures, but these methods need again additional
development to be efficient and robust.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors thank the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) for the support provided
through different research grants and through the support of the Research Training Group
GRK 615.
International RILEM Conference on Material Science MATSCI, Aachen 2010 Vol. II, HetMat 11
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