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Periodic Models

 

The random arrangement of multi-sized aggregate particles in real mortars plays an important role in determining the effective properties of the composite. However, ordered periodic arrangements of aggregate grains are easier to handle computationally and provide important qualitative insight. The periodic model considered in this paper is a body-centered-cubic (bcc) packing of spherical sand grains. The edge of the unit cube is 500 µm, the sphere diameter is 400 µm, and interfacial zone thickness, h, is 20 µm. The sphere diameter was chosen as being representative of the size distribution used in Ref. [10]. Given these parameters, it can easily be shown that the sand volume fraction is 54%, the interfacial zone occupies roughly 1/3 of the matrix, and that the the interfacial zones percolate.