Investigation of the embedded cooling pipe system effects on thermal stresses of the mass concrete structures using two phase finite element modeling

Pipe cooling is widely used for reducing hydration heat and controlling thermal cracking in mass concrete structures. In order to consider the effect of simultaneous cooling of the embedded pipes and the concrete lift, it is suitable to utilize numerical simulations. In this study, a two phase finite element analysis is used for thermal analysis and pipe cooling system. The numerical algorithm solves the transient temperature field considering the effects of layered base concrete setting, cement hydration properties, cooling pipes specifications, heat isolations due to form works, ambient temperature variations, and changing the material properties during concrete aging. The quality of the present finite element analysis results are verified by comparing the numerical results with the measured data reported for a concrete footing. Then the effects of the existence of cooling system on changes in stress distribution of the concrete footing are investigated