Numerical study on the behavior of polypropylene fiber reinforced concrete subjected to moderate temperature variations using LDPM theory

This paper presents the mechanical behavior of macro-synthetic fiber-reinforced concrete with polypropylene fibers (MSFRC) under varying temperature environments. The Lattice Discrete Particle Model (LDPM), a meso-scale model for concrete, is used for the plain concrete study. An extended version of LDPM taking into account the effect of fibers in a discrete way, LDPM-F, is applied for the MSFRC study. The model is calibrated based on the experimental data at room temperature (20 °C). Temperature effects on the MSFRC constituents, fiber and concrete, are individually adjusted inside the LDPM-F formulation based on literature data and available models. Subsequently, predictive three point bending simulations on MSFRC are performed at different temperatures (−30 °C, −15 °C, 0 °C, 40 °C and 60 °C) and the results are validated against available experiments. The results show a generally good agreement between simulations and tests.