3D lattice modeling of tensile test on simulated cement paste at microscale

Looking into materials is always a dream for scientists and engineers in the field of materials science. Plenty of research activities have been performed to approach this dream, including numerical simulations and lab experiments. In this paper, a tensile test on cement paste is to be simulated virtually on computer. But it is different from previous attempts because we are working at a lower scale, i.e. the micro scale. Although there is a rich set of modeling techniques available to fulfill the task, it is decided to apply 3D lattice model rather than continuum finite element model to carry out the simulation because lattice is a discretized model and it would be more preferable to simulate fracture process at micro scale. The cement paste used in the numerical experiment is virtually simulated by the cement hydration and microstructure formation model HYMOSTRUC3D. The simulation results reflect the ability of lattice modeling techniques and the addressed principles can be used potentially to produce a complete multiscale simulation.