The State-of-the-Art of Multiscale Mechanical Modeling Methods for Hydrated Cement Concrete

Hydrated cement concrete is one of the most commonly used materials in civil engineering. Hydrated cement concrete is heterogeneous, consisting of aggregates, sands, hydrated cement paste, and chemical additives, etc. The compositions have different spatial size, ranging from centimeter to micrometer. Mechanical failures of hydrated cement concrete originate from atomic-bond breakage into micro-voids and micro-cracks and then propagate to macro-cracks. To better understand fundamental mechanism of mechanical failures, there have been a lot of laboratory experiments and numerical simulations. However, the wide spatial variations in hydrated cement concrete make mechanical analysis using simulation techniques at multiple scales very challenging. This study reviews available methods of multiscale mechanical modeling for hydrated cement concrete. In addition, problems in this field are discussed, and suggestions are made at the end to better apply multiscale mechanical modeling methods to improving field performances of hydrated cement concrete.