Grassl Group
Concrete Mechanics for Performance Based Design

Meso/Micro scale modelling

We model fracture and mass transport in concrete and other geomaterials using discrete approaches at meso and micro scales, with a focus on coupling between fracture and transport. Fracture affects permeability and ingress rates (impacting durability), while fluid pressure can also initiate and drive fracture.

We developed 2D coupled discrete approaches (dual Delaunay/Voronoi) for fracture–transport coupling in Grassl (2008) and Grassl (2009), later applied to hydraulic fracturing (Grassl et al., 2015) and corrosion-induced cracking (Grassl et al., 2017).

In 2009 we extended the dual approach to 3D, first shown in Grassl & Bolander (2009), with full details in Grassl & Bolander (2016). Within the EPSRC SAFE barriers project, we further developed a hydro-mechanical pore-scale model, used for wetting of bentonite (Athanasiadis et al., 2017).

Discrete meso-scale analyses of fracture processes are presented in Grassl & Jirásek (2010), Grassl et al. (2012), Grégoire et al. (2015), with calibration for nonlocal averaging radius in Xenos et al. (2015). Recent 3D meso-scale studies of fibre-reinforced composites are in Grassl & Antonelli (2018).

Current work: 3D meso-scale modelling of corrosion-induced cracking and creep (DOI), and effects of multiaxial stress states on tensile fracture processes.

See Publications or contact me for more information.