Document Type
Article
Date of Original Version
2019
Department
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Abstract
The use of phase change materials in infrastructure has gained significant attention in the recent years owing to their robust thermal performance. This study implements a numerical simulation framework using finite element analysis to evaluate the influence of phase change materials (PCMs) on the thermal response of concrete pavements in geographical regions with significant winter weather conditions. The analysis is carried out at different length scales. The latent-heat associated with different PCMs is efficiently incorporated into the simulation framework. Besides, the numerical simulation framework employs continuum damage mechanics to evaluate the influence of PCMs on the freeze-thaw induced damage in concretes. The simulations show significant reductions in the freeze-thaw induced damage when PCMs are incorporated in concrete. The numerical simulation framework, developed here, provides efficient means of optimizing the material design of such durable PCM-incorporated concretes for pavements by tailoring the composition and material microstructure to maximize performance.
Citation/Publisher Attribution
Nayak, S., Krishnan, N.M. A., & Das, S. (2019). Microstructure-guided numerical simulation to evaluate the influence of phase change materials (PCMs) on the freeze-thaw response of concrete pavements. Construction and Building Materials, 201, 246-256. doi: 10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2018.12.199
Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2018.12.199
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