A SPH simulation method for opening flow of fresh concrete considering boundary restraint

Abstract When fresh concrete flows through opening, such as steel bars, blockage may occur due to segregation or insufficient fluidity. Insufficient fluidity may be attributed to the increase of deformation resistance because of opening’s boundary restraint. In this paper, opening flow behavior of fresh concrete was analyzed by Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics. We proposed a boundary restraint stress model to treat opening’s boundary restraint to the flow, which clarified that normal stress acting on the shear plane of fresh concrete increases during opening flow. The parameters in the model were obtained by matching the experimental and numerical results of V-funnel flow test. Then, the flow of fresh concrete in L-box with steel bars was simulated. The numerical results indicated that the restraint of opening’s boundary has considerable effect on the flow behavior when fresh concrete has larger average particle contact angle and average particle friction angle, or the opening is narrow.