Structural Concrete, Vol. 10, no. 4, December 2009
Modelling of temperature profiles in a concrete slab under climatic exposure
O. Larsson, Lund University, Sweden
Effects of surrounding climate impose temperature variations in both time and space for concrete structures. The associated thermal strains may give rise to stresses and cracking due to external or internal restraint. This will affect the performance of the structure. It is therefore important to analyse the temperature variations and the extreme situations that can occur. To predict the dynamic thermal conditions in concrete structures a finite-element model has been developed. The ability of the model to describe correctly the various boundary conditions such as solar radiation, outgoing long-wave radiation and convection is investigated in this paper. Field temperature measurements in a concrete slab placed outdoors are used for the validation. The necessary climatic input data for the model were obtained from measurements in the vicinity of the slab. The results show that the model can describe with good accuracy the effects of different climatic factors in extreme situations and is well suited to use in further studies.
