A material model for alkali-silica reaction in reinforced concrete

In this paper a constitutive relation is developed for reinforced concrete subjected to a continuing alkali-silica reaction. The chemo-mechanical interaction is described within the framework of chemoplasticity. The formulation invokes the assumption that the formation of expansive phases results in degradation of mechanical properties of the material. Additionally, the explicit influence of temperature is taken into account. The approach employs a constitutive model for reinforced concrete, recently developed by the authors. A numerical analysis is conducted examining the effect of the reaction on mechanical characteristics in axial compression/tension for different reinforcement intensities. The results are compared with the available experimental data. © 2006 Taylor & Francis Group.