Thermal Degradation of Heterogeneous Concrete Materials

Abstract

In this paper, we examine the interaction of thermal and mechanical damage processes in heterogeneous materials such as concrete. After a brief introduction of high temperature effects in concrete, we address two topics: (1) the interaction of thermal and mechanical damage at the mesomechanical level of observations, when volumetric and deviatoric degradation take place simultaneously; and (2) the effect of thermal expansion and shrinkage in the two-phase concrete material when thermal softening of the elastic properties leads to massive degradation of the load resistance.