Using Particle Systems to Model the Building Materials

Abstract

Escalating the operational actions in construction demands the development of building materials with improved properties. Today, the nanomodified and nanostructured materials (also called nanocomposites) attract great attention of the scientists all over the world. The successful development of nanocomposites requires simultaneous application of theoretical examination, experimental investigations and numerical studies. In the present work we provide short review of the simulation methods involving particle systems as a materials model and also discuss several results obtained during numerical studies of building materials by means of using such methods. It is noted that neither the single mathematical model, nor the only one simulation method can be used for modeling of building material at all levels of scale (from macroscopic down to nanoscale). However, some models and numerical methods are still quite general. Thus, they can be utilized for modeling a very wide range of phenomena from compaction process at macroscopic level to reinforcement regularities at micro-and nanoscale. The obtained results both offers the insight into regularities of structure forming process and allow to reduce time and cost of the design.