Large-Scale Numerical Simulation of an RC Tunnel Junction Member Using Particle Discretization Scheme FEM

This paper presents a large-scale numerical simulation of a reinforced concrete (RC) tunnel junction member using solid FEM. Particle discretization scheme (PDS), which uses two sets of non-overlapping characteristic functions to discretize displacement field and strain/stress field respectively, is employed to represent the multiple-cracking configurations of concrete. An efficient parallel FE program, called ADVENTURE, is used to implement PDS as well as a reformulated nonlinear concrete constitutive relation. A simplified tunnel junction member, in order to reveal its multiple-cracking behavior under the static load, is studied and the stochastic behavior of cracking is investigated; good agreements are achieved between the simulation results and experimental observations regarding the multiple cracking configurations.