Creep modelling for multi-physical simulation of mass concrete structures using the explicit finite element approach

Abstract In the context of increasingly required evaluation of existing critical concrete infrastructures, prediction of the long-term behaviour can sometimes be very sensitive to the proper consideration of physical phenomena that occur during the first weeks during construction. For the specific example of mass concrete structures, it is important to consider the heat of hydration process and the possible development of thermally induced stresses and cracking at an early age. Consideration of the early age to the long-term time spectrum to recreate the history of stress/crack development is a challenging task in the field of numerical simulation of concrete structures and involves a consideration of multiple non-linear and physical phenomena. This work constitutes a continuation of previous works involving multi-physical simulation of concrete structures using the explicit finite element solver algorithm, which is known for its efficiency in solving highly nonlinear problems compared to the conventional implicit solver. A simple and innovative framework was developed in previous studies and involves the decomposition of strain into mechanical, thermal, creep, shrinkage and a coupling chemo-physical strain. This work focuses on the development of a simple and feasible computational framework for considering the creep in the specific field of mass concrete structures. Verification and validation examples are considered at the material and element levels. Application at the structural level on a new numerical benchmark demonstrates the feasibility of the approach and the efficiency of the developed computational framework.