Computational modeling of a mass concrete structure using a post-cooling system
Palavras-chave:
post-cooling, mass concrete, numerical model, finite element method, cooling pipesResumo
The thermal cracking of young concrete, associated with the high costs and safety requirements of in-
frastructure works, has been a concern of the engineering community since the first applications of mass concrete.
The generation of heat during hydration and the consequent increase in the temperature of concrete are impor-
tant, not only because they can generate thermal gradients in space and time, responsible for the appearance of
high initial stresses, but also because deleterious phenomena such as delayed ettringite formation (DEF) have been
shown to be associated with the existence of thermal fields in the early ages of cementitious material. In this sense,
this work will present the simulation of the construction of a mass concrete structure, on a mesoscopic scale, in
which the temperature of the material is reduced during hydration by the circulation of water in pipes embedded
in the formwork by a postcooling system. The simulation was based on data obtained from the construction of a
concrete slab, previously builded and tested in the laboratory of FURNAS (Goiania/GO). The computational mod- ˆ
eling was performed using the finite element method (FEM), in a parallel environment, developed in FORTRAN
programming language, by PEC/COPPE/UFRJ.
