STUDY ON CONCRETE MOISTURE AND DRYING SHRINKAGE BASED ON MESOSCOPICAL DAMAGE MODEL

This paper models the concrete to be an un-homogeneous composite material made of matrices and aggregates, and takes into account the influence of material damage, as well as the influence on the moisture and stress due to the differences in material characteristics of the aggregate and matrices. The damage distribution of the concrete was significantly different when it was modeled to be un-homogeneous. The actual distributions of moisture, dry shrinkage deformation and dry shrinkage stress were obtained by using the mesoscopical model and the calculation method considering the influence of damage and the differences in material characteristics. The mesoscopical result facilitates our understanding of the cracking mechanism, cracking model and the crack’s growth induced by the drying shrinkage.