A Temporal Multiscale Model for Fatigue Damage of Concrete

Abstract

A temporal multiscale model was developed to characterize the damage that evolves in concrete structures throughout a complete scenario of dynamic fatigue loading. The damage was decomposed into quasistatic and dynamic components, and its evolution was controlled by introducing negative and positive feedback mechanisms. Fatigue damage evolution equations of the power law type were used together with a deduced temporal multiscale scheme to allow a computationally efficient finite-element method (FEM) simulation of the damage that evolves during the whole loading process. The validity and computational efficiency of the FEM model were assessed by comparing its predictions with published experimental data.