2D Linear Galerkin finite volume analysis of thermal stresses during sequential layer settings of mass concrete considering contact interface and variations of material properties. Part 1: Thermal analysis

In this research, a new explicit 2D numerical solution is presented to compute the temperature field which is caused due to hydration and thermal conductivity by the Galerkin finite volume method on unstructured meshes of triangular elements. The concrete thermal properties vary, based on the temperature variation and the age of the concrete in the developed model. A novel method for imposing natural boundary conditions is introduced that is suitable for the Galerkin finite volume method solution on unstructured meshes of triangular elements. In addition, the thermal contact is considered at the concrete-rock foundation interface to achieve more realistic simulations in this section. In this work we present the comparison of the thermal analysis numerical results of a plane wall, which had different thermal boundary conditions applied to its edges, with its analytical solution to assess the accuracy and efficiency of the developed model. The applicability of the developed numerical algorithm for thermal analysis is presented by the solution of thermal fields during gradual construction of a typical mass concrete structure.