Thermal cracking analysis of concrete with cement hydration model and equivalent age method

In this research, a developed microstructural model of cement particles was presented to describe the cement hydration procedure. To simplify the hydration process, the whole hydration was analyzed in a series of sub-steps. In each step, the hydration degree, as well as the microstructural size of the hydration cell, was calculated as a function of the radius of the unreacted cement particles. With the consideration of the water consumption and the reduction of the interfacial area between water and hydration products, the micro-level expressions of the cement hydration kinetics were established. Then the heat released and temperature history of the concrete was carried out with the hydration degree obtained from each sub-steps. The equivalent age method based on the Arrhenius law was introduced in this research. Based on the equivalent age method, a maturity model was applied to describe the evolution of the mechanical properties of the material during the hydration process. The finite element program ANSYS was used to analyze the temperature field in concrete structures. Then thermal stress field was calculated using the elasticity modulus obtained from code formulate. And the risk of thermal cracking was estimated by the comparison of thermal stress and concrete tensile strength.