NONLINEAR ANALYSIS OF TEMPERATURE AND MOISTURE DISTRIBUTIONS IN EARLY-AGE CONCRETE STRUCTURES BASED ON DEGREE OF HYDRATION

Abstract

In this paper, adequate modeling of early-age concrete is used to realistically analyze the actual concrete structures at early ages. The models are incorporated into a 3-D finite element procedure. Mathematical formulation of the degree of hydration is based on the combination of 3 rate functions of reaction that represent effects of moisture condition as well as temperature. In moisture transfer, moisture transport coefficient, capacity, and sink are strongly dependent on the degree of hydration as well as the water-cement (w/c) ratio. The realistic models and finite element program developed in this work provide fairly good results on the temperature and moisture distribution for early-age concrete and correlate very well with actual test data.