Mesoscale mechanical discrete model for cementitious composites with microfibers

Microfibers (less than 100 m in diameter) are commonly employed in structural applications to minimize early shrinkage cracking and lower pore pressure during fires.For any application, micro fiber-reinforced concrete (FRC) structural behavior and durability must be estimated using the mechanical constitutive law.Formulating a mechanical constitutive law for FRC presents several difficulties in terms of com-prehending the physical principles and employing suitable numerical techniques.A novel model called "Lattice Discrete Particle Model for micro-FRC (LDPM-MicroF)" is presented to simulate the fracture behavior of black micro-FRC.An equivalent fiber diameter coefficient has been defined to balance modeling accuracy and computational cost so that the LDPM-MicroF model can simulate the mechanical responses of engineered cementitious composites.The unimodal variation in tensile strength caused by the increase in microfiber dose is assessed and quantitatively reproduced by LDPM-MicroF predictions.