Aggregate Impact on Dynamic Behavior of Concrete Using Finite Element Method

Concrete is a composite material that is important and is often used in construction because concrete has a high compressive strength. Aggregates consisting of 70% by volume of concrete, thus the aggregate properties is believed to affect the behavior of concrete during concrete structures subjected to dynamic loads strongly (e.g. gas explosions or weapons, falling rocks and earthquakes). The behavior of concrete under dynamic loads can be found by identifying the dynamic increase factor (DIF). When concrete under static and low-rate loading, concrete material damage is governed by the relatively weaker strength of mortar and the interface transition zone (ITZ), but if the concrete under high-speed loading, cracking propagate through aggregates, therefore results in increase the strength of concrete. This research aims to study the effects of normal aggregates on the dynamic behavior of concrete by using the finite element method using LS-DYNA software. Models of concrete with different types of aggregates such as granite, basalt, limestone, and sandstone are used in this study. Numerical simulation of model concrete under compressive stress at different strain rate is carried out. At low strain rate loading, concrete failure only occurred in the mortar and not too obvious. While, at high strain rate loading, failure occurred in the aggregate and failure in the mortar is apparent. Basalt that is high strength has high DIF value and limestone has the lowest value of DIF.