Computational modelling and characterization of non-Newtonian visco-plastic cementitious building materials

Summary

Cementitious building materials like Ultra High Performance Concrete (UHPC), Self-Compacting Concrete (SCC) or concrete with low clinker content possess complex rheological properties. Due to high packing densities and the use of various additives and chemical admixtures, a huge range of non-Newtonian flow characteristics from shear-thinning to shear-thickening, visco-elastic material behaviour and structural build-up can appear. For these concretes, transient computational modelling using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) requires a meaningful choice of rheological parameters and the associated boundary conditions. The authors present the rheological analysis of five cementitious pastes with low ( = 0.45) to high ( = 0.58) solid volume fraction . Rheological parameters from rheometric flow protocols are compared with empirical stoppage test results for short and steady (slump flow) and transient flow (L-Box) conditions. Following, numerical simulation with the measured rheological parameters as input parameters is compared to the experimental flow results. CFD analysis using OpenFOAM is performed for the flow in empirical stoppage tests. We found that with increasing non-Newtonian behaviour, deviations between real and simulated flow appear due to insufficient transient flow descriptions and unknown secondary effects. The results provide new insight into computational modelling of complex cementitious building materials and serve as basis for further advanced CFD based modelling and characterization of time-dependent non-Newtonian concrete flow.

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