Failure analysis of ultra high-performance fiber-reinforced concrete structures enhanced with nanomaterials by using a diffuse cohesive interface approach

Recent progresses in nanotechnology have clearly shown that the incorporation of nanomaterials within concrete elements leads to a sensible increase in strength and toughness, especially if used in combination with randomly distributed short fiber reinforcements, as for ultra high-performance fiber-reinforced concrete (UHPFRC). Current damage models often are not able to accurately predict the development of diffuse micro/macro-crack patterns which are typical for such concrete structures. In this work, a diffuse cohesive interface approach is proposed to predict the structural response of UHPFRC structures enhanced with embedded nanomaterials. According to this approach, all the internal mesh boundaries are regarded as potential crack segments, modeled as cohesive interfaces equipped with a mixed-mode traction-separation law suitably calibrated to account for the toughening effect of nano-reinforcements. The proposed fracture model has been firstly validated by comparing the failure simulation results of UHPFRC specimens containing different fractions of graphite nanoplatelets with the available experimental data. Subsequently, such a model, combined with an embedded truss model to simulate the concrete/steel rebars interaction, has been used for predicting the load-carrying capacity of steel bar-reinforced UHPFRC elements enhanced with nanoplatelets. The numerical outcomes have shown the reliability of the proposed model, also highlighting the role of the nano-reinforcement in the crack width control.