Mesoscale Analysis of Fatigue Damage through Aggregate–Mortar Bond Cracks in Cementitious Composites

Abstract

A micromechanics-based model is developed to study the fatigue response of cementitious composites. Microcrack growth, which is the predominant mechanism responsible for fatigue damage, is explicitly modeled at the mesoscale. The damaged state at the macroscopic scale is determined by using energetic criterion. The dissipated energy associated with each stage of microcrack propagation is computed numerically based on the elastic solutions of the stress and displacement quantities at the mesoscale. The model is used to predict the fatigue life of plain concrete beams under fatigue load cycles. The influence of the various properties of the constituent phases on the fatigue life of the composite is investigated through a parametric study.