Numerical and Experimental Assessment of the Size and Boundary Conditions Effects for the Overall Properties of Granular Composite Bodies Smaller than the Representative Volume

Abstract

For such a strongly heterogeneous material as concrete, experimental testing with current standard specimens gives good results only for classic concrete (when the size of the granules is smaller than 32 mm) and for engineering structural elements bigger than the representative volume of concrete. But in many practical cases, specimens of the representative volume are not available. For example, inadam concrete granules can be coarser than 150 mm, while diameters of specimens are smaller than 300 mm. In such situations the testing results depend on the specimen dimensions (the size effect) and on the applied boundary conditions (the B. C. effect).