Advances in multi-scale simulation of hygro-thermo- mechanical deformation behavior of structural concrete

This paper presents theoretical and numerical state-of-the-art information in the field of hygro-thermo-mechanicaldeformation simulation in structural concrete. the aspects discussed include coupled hygro-thermo-mechanical performanceof porous materials including concrete, multi-scale simulation of concrete properties especially the volumetric and structuraldeformation performance, and the multi-scale simulation of concrete under the coupling effect of multi-physics fields. themulti-scale simulation section includes the multi-scale simulation of composition and structure in concrete, the multi-scalesimulation of concrete’s mechanical performance, and the multi-scale simulation of durability concerned performance ofconcrete. this paper presents an overview of the work, of which data from early 80 recent studies, carried out on the multiscalesimulation of hygro-thermo-mechanical deformation performance of structural concrete. the relating previous studiesand analysis showed that sufficient data have been obtained to give confidence in simulating hygro-thermo-mechanicalperformance of concrete based on the theory of heat and mass transfer in porous media, and the clear relationships have beenobtained between moisture-heat transfer and hygro-thermal distribution at different scale. it is necessary to make furthersystematic multi-scale research on the relationship between micro-structure and property parameters of cement paste, threephasebasic properties at meso level of concrete and the performance of concrete structures, which makes important practicalsignificance to solve the crack of large-area and mass concrete structure and improve the durability of concrete structures