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Typical Creo Elements models have many inside or re-entrant corners. In the real world you could not build a part with perfect sharp inside corners. There will always be some radius resulting from the tooling used to make the part. Sometimes fillets are left off the CAD parts and are specified in the drawing notes. In the FEA world re-entrant corners are a bad thing. These represent an infinite change in stiffness inside the part, which will result in an infinite stress concentration. The MPA convergence algorithm will not converge on infinity and the SPA algorithm will ignore any elements touching a re-entrant corner during its error estimation. The resulting stress convergence plot will be a line that continues to increase without ever starting to reach an asymptote.
Oct 12, 2007 By running 5 feet of the 10-foot keyway sections into the body of the slab, the re-entrant corner is removed and cracking will occur along the sawcut lines (see Diagram 9). For this detail, the top of the keyway is purposely kept 1½ inches below the top of the slab, such that the sawcut can pass directly over the top of the depressed keyway.
If this is a problem in your Creo Simulate model you should probably ask the question “Is this a good design having the highest stress in the model at a re-entrant corner?” The answer may be ‘yes’ if the material is ductile and fatigue loading is not an issue. If this is true and you are planning to ignore this stress just add a small fillet to prevent a convergence problem or use the ‘Isolate for Exclusion’ option under Mesh Control. Otherwise you may want to rethink the design.
- Crack widths, but also leads to a conceptually clear method of design. For the D-regions of reinforced concrete structures such as the re-entrant corners, the strut-and-tie model (Schlaich et al., 1987) is a very powerful tool for visualizing the internal flow of forces and for arranging the steel bars and concrete struts.
- Placed at 45 degrees to the re-entrant corner with nominal top cover. The crack control measures are there to arrest the crack opening and not prevent crack formation. It is the job of isolation detailing and joint positioning to reduce the risk of crack formation at re-entrant corners.
Reentrant Corner Crack
Theoretically re-entrant corners should always cause a problem for convergence, however, due to the coarseness of the error estimation process re-entrant corner convergence problems generally only show up in higher stress areas of the model.
Other similar stiffness discontinuity problems are shown below.
Whether you are a contractor, architect, engineer or simply a home owner with a concrete foundation you have most likely heard the adage that “all concrete cracks”. While this is true, there are measures that can be taken to greatly reduce the magnitude and frequency of cracks. To do this, one must have an understanding of the factors that lead to cracking. One such factor is stress concentrations in the concrete which are evident at re-entrant corners. Re-entrant corners are defined as any inside corner that forms an angle of 180° or less. In a solid object that is subjected to internal or external loads, re-entrant corners create high stress concentrations. If that solid object is concrete, which is strong in compression but weak in tension, then it will inevitably lead to a crack that will propagate at approximately 135° from the corner. Re-entrant corner cracks are especially prevalent in concrete slabs that are relatively thin in comparison to their plan size. In this article, I will focus on re-entrant corners in slabs-on-grade.
Examples of loads that can induce stress in concrete slabs include:
Reentrant Corner Check
Shrinkage of the slab during the curing process when the concrete will shrink in volume as the chemical reaction between the cement and water takes place. Depending on the curing methods in place, the top and bottom surface of the slab will cure at different rates which induces stress in the slab.
Temperature changes. As with all materials, when concrete increases in temperature it will expand and when it decreases in temperature it will shrink. This expansion/shrinkage induces stress in the slab due to restraints such as friction with the bottom of the slab, stiffening ribs, piers etc.
External loads such as additional material or assemblies placed on top of the slab.
Temperature changes. As with all materials, when concrete increases in temperature it will expand and when it decreases in temperature it will shrink. This expansion/shrinkage induces stress in the slab due to restraints such as friction with the bottom of the slab, stiffening ribs, piers etc.
External loads such as additional material or assemblies placed on top of the slab.
There are a number of measures that can be utilized to control re-entrant corner cracks including:
Contraction (Control) Joints: Place contraction joints at the re-entrant corner to create weak planes in the slab that will increase the possibility of cracks forming in the bottom of these contraction joints rather than at ~135° from the corner. Contraction joints can be formed by tooling the joints while the concrete is still plastic or with a saw after the concrete has set. It is important that contraction joints are placed as soon as possible before re-entrant corner cracks begin to form.
Construction Joints: Placing a construction joint 90° to the interior corner eliminates the re-entrant corner and thus the stress concentration.
Wet Curing. Wet curing of the slab will slow down the curing process and will create a more uniform cure rate between the top and bottom of the slab. This has the effect of reducing but not eliminating internal stresses. Wet curing can be accomplished by ponding the slab, utilizing foggers to maintain a humid environment on the slab, or by applying a chemical curing compound. In my experience, ponding of the slab is the most effective means of wet curing however it is typically the least practical.
Construction Joints: Placing a construction joint 90° to the interior corner eliminates the re-entrant corner and thus the stress concentration.
Wet Curing. Wet curing of the slab will slow down the curing process and will create a more uniform cure rate between the top and bottom of the slab. This has the effect of reducing but not eliminating internal stresses. Wet curing can be accomplished by ponding the slab, utilizing foggers to maintain a humid environment on the slab, or by applying a chemical curing compound. In my experience, ponding of the slab is the most effective means of wet curing however it is typically the least practical.
Reentrant Corner
Water to Cement Ratio: The primary ingredients in concrete are cement, water, fine aggregate and course aggregate. The water chemically reacts with the cement to bind the aggregate in a solid matrix. To fully hydrate cement, a water to cement ratio (w/c ) of 0.26 is required. Additional (free) water is added to the mix to increase the workability of the concrete. As more free water is added to the mix, it increases the shrinkage of the concrete because the free water will eventually evaporate out of the concrete. For our slab-on-grade design, Dudley Engineering typically specifies a maximum w/c ratio of 0.45. Additional workability can be achieved by adding water-reducing admixtures or superplasticizers to the mix.
Fly Ash: Fly ash is a recycled material that can be utilized in limited quantities to replace cement. Replacing a small portion of the cement with fly ash can have the benefit of reducing the expansion of the concrete during curing.
Concrete Additives: There are chemical admixtures which can be added to the concrete mix that reduce the shrinkage rate of the concrete. Recently, on a post-tensioned slab-on-grade foundation that was intended to remain exposed, Dudley Engineering specified a shrinkage-reducing admixture in the concrete. This, along with other measures listed above, has produced a slab that is showing no signs of visible cracks.
To have a slab-on-grade foundation that is relatively crack free even at re-entrant corners, a combination of the solutions addressed above should be utilized. In addition to having a more aesthetic slab, it will also exhibit better structural performance throughout the life of the structure.