A mesoscopic model for the behaviour of concrete under high confinement

When impact loaded, concrete is submitted to high triaxial stresses. The experimental response of concrete under quasi‐static triaxial compression is studied using a triaxial press capable of applying a mean pressure greater than 1 GPa on cylindrical samples measuring 7 cm in diameter and 14 cm high. A numerical analysis of these previous experiments is performed herein at a mesoscopic scale. Concrete is modelled as a biphasic material consisting of a mortar (cement paste and fine aggregates) and roughly spherical aggregates (with a diameter exceeding 2 mm) whose characteristics are applied on a regular cubic finite element mesh. A damage‐plasticity model is then used to model the behaviour of mortar. An identification of model parameters on mortar samples and the subsequent comparison between numerical and experimental tests will be presented for hydrostatic and triaxial compression. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.