Mesomechanic Analysis of Time Dependent Concrete Behavior

R. Lorefice & G. Etse

Universidad Nacional de Tucum

an, CONICET, Argentina

C.M Lopez & I. Carol

ETSECCPB-UPC, E-08034, Barcelona, Spain

ABSTRACT: This paper presents a mesomechanic approach for the analysis of time dependent problems
in concrete structures by using a consistent viscoplastic formulation at meso level of observation. Creep
and relaxation phenomena are addressed under the unified theoretical framework provided by Perzynas
viscoplasticity theory.

1 INTRODUCTION
It is widely accepted that heterogeneous materials like concrete require different levels of observations to fully understand the mechanism governing their response behaviors when they are subjected to complex loading cases that activate nonlinear responses. This is particularly the case when
time dependent effects are involved as the precise calibration of traditional macroscopic models based on continuous or smeared-crack concept
need observations at meso and, moreover, micro
levels to accurately evaluate and distinguish the
rate sensitivity of the different constituents as well
as their influences in the overall behavior. Several
authors have already recognized the importance of
mesostructure evaluations of heterogeneous material responses with three main features: it includes
a non-regular array of particles representing the
largest aggregates, a homogeneous matrix modelling the behavior of mortar plus small aggregates,
and the interfaces between the two phases. Indeed,
the mesomechanic approach provides a consistent
extension of the Fictitious Crack Model concept
into realistic finite element analyses of discrete failure processes of brittle materials.
After reviewing the main features of the
consistent viscoplastic interface model for ratedependent mesomechanic analyses by Lorefice,
Etse and Carol (2005) the predictions at the constitutive and mesostructure levels of observation
of creep and relaxation processes are evaluated.
Thereby, two different approaches are considered
for the matrix in case of the meso-level analyses

of time-dependent effects in concrete: on the one

hand, an aging Maxwell chain assigned to the continuum elements conforming the matrix phase as
proposed by Lopez et al. (2001),(2003). On the
other hand, a discrete approach in which the ratedependent non-linear response of the matrix is
modelled by means of the interface elements inserted in-between the continuum elements of the
matrix phase. Numerical analyses of relaxation
and creep processes are performed to evaluate different aspects of the concrete rate-dependent response behavior. The results demonstrate the capability of the mesoscopic analysis based on the
proposed viscoplastic interface model formulation
to reproduce the main features of concrete ratedependency including stress relaxation under constant strain and basic creep (without humidity
changes) under constant stress.
2 TIME DEPENDENCY OF CONCRETE BEHAVIOR
Under sustained loads/strains, the influence of
creep and/or relaxation effects becomes relevant
to the evaluation of the life-time and durability
of concrete structures. The creep mechanism has
been addressed by several authors, see a.o. Bazant
and Wittman (1982), Bazant and Panula (1997),
Domone (1974), Neville (1996), Westman (1994),
Granger (1994), Granger and Bazant (1995), Benboudjema (2002). At meso-level of observation, basic creep has been investigated by Lopez et al.
(2001),(2003) and Ciancio et al. (2003). When a
concrete specimen is subjected to sustained stress

it experiences a gradual increase in deformation

with time as shown in Figure 1.
De

s
s0

(a) (b)

(c)

(a) (b) (c)

(d)

DELASTIC
(d)

DCREEP RECOVERY
DCREEP PERMANENT

DELASTIC

t0

tu

t0

time
DELASTIC

tu

DELASTIC

DCREEP PERMANENT
DCREEP RECOVERY
DELASTIC

DCREEP

(b)

(a)

time

(d)

(c)

Figure 1: Creep deformation definitions: (a) original length, (b) elastic deformation, (c) creep loading, and (d) permanent creep after loading (Weiss
1999)
e
e0

(a) (b)

(c)

s
(b) (c) (d)
sELASTIC (a)

(d)

sRELAXATION
t0

tu

ePERMANENT
time

t0

time
DCREEP PERMANENT
DCREEP RECOVERY

DELASTIC

(a)

tu

(b)

(c)

(d)

Figure 2: Creep/relaxation definitions: (a) original length, (b) elastic deformation, (c) creep loading, and (d) permanent creep strain after loading
(Weiss 1999)

Deformation

Total Creep Deformation

Drying Creep Deformation
Basic Creep Deformation
Drying Shrinkage Deformation
Elastic Deformation
Time

Figure 3: . Time-dependent deformations in concrete subjected to sustained load (after Neville

1996)
This type of time dependent deformation is
known as creep. Another form of concrete time-

dependency is the stress relaxation that takes

places when a restrained concrete specimen is subjected to a constant deformation. This effect, that
is produced by the same causes as creep, leads to
a progressive reduction of the stress with time as
shown in Figure 2.
Actually, the mechanisms that result in creep of
concrete are complex. It is generally accepted that
moisture movement within concrete is the main
mechanism responsible for creep, see Mehta and
Monteiro (1993). When a hydrated cement paste
is subjected to sustained stress, depending on the
magnitude of stress, it looses a significant amount
of the water physically adsorbed between the layers
of calcium silicate hydrate (CSH) resulting in creep
deformation (Mehta and Monteiro 1993). Bazant
(1982) has proposed that creep of concrete occurs when interlayer water migrates from stressed
gel (micropores) to stress-free zones (larger pores).
Since the bonds and the contacts between the layers of cement gel are highly disordered and unstable, this water migration helps the solid particles to move out of the loaded regions. The migrations of interlayer water and of solid particles
in cement gel are responsible for creep. Recently,
Rossi (1988),(1994), proposed a new hypothesis
concerning the physical mechanism of basic creep.
According to this hypothesis when a concrete specimen is subjected to loading, microcracks develop
throughout the volume of the specimen. This results in a gradient of water molecule concentration,
which leads to a migration of water vapor from
capillaries to the microcracks. The local movement
of water causes significant drying of the capillaries. Precisely, this post-cracking local drying of the
capillaries is the main cause of basic creep.
3 VISCOPLASTICITY THEORY
Among the different proposed constitutive theories for rate dependent materials, see a.o. Perzyna
(1963),(1966), Duvaut and Lions (1972), Bodner
and Partom (1975), the most widely accepted is
the viscoplastic formulation by Perzyna. The features of the Perzynas model have been addressed
by several authors, see a.o. Simo (1989), Sluys
(1992), Wang (1997), Simo and Hughes, (1998),
Etse and Willam (1999), Carosio et al. (2000), Etse
and Carosio (2002). Restricting our analysis to the
small-strain case, the total strain rate can be decomposed into an elastic and a viscoplastic part
which accounts for both irreversible and viscous
deformation,
= e + vp

(1)

The stress rate is related to the strain rate by the

constitutive relation
= E : e

(2)

whereby, E is the fourth-order material tangent operator. The evolution of the viscoplastic strain rate
in the Perzyna model is defined as
1
vp = G(, F, ) = h(F )im

(3)

with the viscosity parameter, m the viscoplastic

potential gradient defined as m = A1 : n, being
n the gradient tensor to the yield surface F and A
the fourth order transformation tensor, and (F ) a
dimensionless monotonically increasing over-stress
function defined as
N

F (, q)
(F ) =
(4)
F0
F0 is a normalizing factor, usually chosen equal to
the initial yield limit and N a constant defining the
order of the Perzynas viscoplatic formulation.
The evolution law for the set of hardening/softening variables q is defined as
q =

1
h(F )iH : m,

(5)

being H a suitable tensorial function of the state

variables. Like in classical elastoplasticity, the viscoplastic flow rule takes the form

vp = m

(6)

Combining equations (3) and (6), the viscoplastic

multiplier in the Perzynas theory can be written
as
1
= h(F )i

(7)

From eqs. (4) and (7) a viscoplastic constrain condition can be defined as (Ponthot (1995), Etse and
Willam (1999))

=0
(8)
F =F
Equation (8) can be viewed as a generalization
of the inviscid yield condition F = 0 for ratedependent Perzyna type materials. The name continuous formulation is due to the fact that the condition = 0 (without viscosity effect) leads to the
elastoplastic yield condition F = 0. Moreover, from
equation (7) follows that when 0 the consistency parameter remains finite and positive since

also the over-stress goes to zero. The other extreme

case, , leads to the inequality F < 0 for every
possible stress state, indicating that only elastic
response may be activated. The constraint condition defined by equation (8) allows a generalization
of the Kuhn-Tucker conditions which may be now
written as
F = 0 , 0, F 0.

(9)

Finally, the viscoplastic consistency condition expands into

=0
F = n : + rq + s

(10)

where
F
r =
=
q

F
1 ( )

q
q

!
h

(11)

and

1 ( )
s =

(12)

4 RATE-DEPENDENT INTERFACE MODEL

In this section the rate-dependent extension of the
interface model by Carol et al. (1997) is summarized. The viscoplastic yield condition of the interface constitutive model can be expressed as

F = 2 (c tan )2 + (c tan )2 ()(13)

being and the normal and tangential stress
components at the interface with the traction
strength (vertex of hyperbola), c the apparent
cohesion (shear strength) and the friction angle.The evolution of the fracture process is driven
by the cracking parameters and c, which depend
on a single parameter: the work spent on the rate
dependent fracture process during crack formation,
qvcr , see Lorefice et al. (2005) that is defined as
qvcr = u vcr + v vcr if
or

vcr

= v

vcr

tan
if
1 -

(14)

<0

(15)

whereby uvcr and v vcr are the normal and tangential (critical) rate-dependent rupture displacements, respectively. As defined by Lorefice et al.
(2005) the viscoplastic flow of the rate dependent
interface model is fully associated in tension while
non-associated in compression, with the gradient

vectors m and n to the viscoplastic potential and

yield surface, respectively, related to each other by
means of the transformation matrix A as m = An.
The continuum viscoplastic form of the rate dependent interface constitutive model is defined by
the following set of equations:
el

vcr

u = u + u

(16)

u el = E1

(17)

= E(u u vcr )

(18)

where T = (,
) is the stress vector, u T = (u,
v)
is
the rate of the relative displacement vector which is
decomposed into the elastic and viscoplastic components, u el and u vcr , respectively, and E the 2x2
elastic stiffness matrix defined as

E=

EN 0
0 ET

(19)

The viscoplastic consistency condition in equation

= 0,
(10) takes now the form F = nt + rq + s
with q = q(c, ) representing the evolution of the
internal variable during the cracking process and
r and s defined as:

dF dc
dF d
+
vcr
dc dq
d dqvcr

r =

qvcr
uvcr

T
m

(20)

The non-linear system of equations is solved using a Newton-Raphson iterative procedure in the
framework of the Closest Point Projection Method
(CPPM) starting from the expansion of a Taylors
series truncated at the first term

F =

i1

F +

i1

dF
d

d = 0

(21)

Replacing in eq.(23) d/d = Em m, with Em =

1
(E1 + M)1 = [E1 + m/] the modified elastic matrix and M the Hessian matrix
for the interface model as given in Lorefice et al.
(2005), the expression for d finally results
i

i1

d = i1

from where the increments of the stress vector and

state variables can be obtained.
5 CONSTITUTIVE ANALYSIS
In this section numerical examples are presented
at constitutive level to evaluate model performance when simulating time dependent failure
processes in concrete. Two different types of load
cases are examined: a) A constant normal displacement/strain field is applied, see Figure 2, that activates plastic material behavior as the corresponding stress state exceeds the yield surface. In this
case, the evolution of the stress state in time domain is of interest and is known as relaxation process. (b) A constant load/stress field is applied to
the interface model that exceeds the yield limit.
Our interest in this case is to study the evolution
of the displacements in time domain or creep.
The analysis in this section will explore the relaxation test for the following set of material parameters: EN = 1.E7M P a/m, = 2.0M P a, GfI =
0.00003M P a.m, GfII = 10GfI . The yield limit in
pure traction for the considered parameters is
= 2.0M P a. A displacement of 3.E 7m was applied that corresponds to a uniform stress state of
3.0M P a. The results of the elastoplastic and the
elasto-viscoplastic computations for several values
of the viscosity parameter are plotted in Figure 4.
3.2

s (MPa)

Viscosity = 1.E7

3.0

from equation (21), the differential change in the

elasto-viscoplastic multiplier is derived as

(24)

]
[nt Em m + r t

Viscosity = 1.E6
2.8

Viscosity = 1.E4
Elastoplastic strength

2.6

d = i1 F

i1

dF
d

2.4

(22)

2.0

Assuming the hypothesis: d = d/t, see Ponthot (1995), Wang (1997), Carosio et al. (2000),
the derivative of the viscoplastic yield function respect to takes the form
dF
d

= nt
+ r
d
d
t

2.2

(23)

1.8
0.0

2.0

4.0

6.0

8.0

10.0

12.0

14.0

16.0

18.0

20.0

Time (Hours)

Figure 4: Relaxation test - constitutive level

It is important to note that in the relaxation test of
elastoplastic materials, the stresses cannot exceed

3.2

2.0E-04

Perfect Viscoplasticity
Softening
Hardening
Viscoelastic Maxwell
Elastoplastic Strength

s (MPa)
3.0
2.8

uN (cm)
1.6E-04

2.6

1.2E-04
2.4

8.0E-05

2.2
2.0

Viscosity = 1.E6

4.0E-05

1.8

Viscosity = 5.E5
Viscosity = 1.E5

1.6
0.0

2.0

4.0

6.0

8.0

10.0

12.0

14.0

16.0

18.0

20.0

Time (Hours)

Figure 5: Relaxation test - comparison of different

models for t = 1
the yield limit, while in case of viscoplastic materials they are allowed to exceed this limit during
transient stage regime. Figure 5 compares the viscoelastic solution of a Maxwell chain with the viscoplastic one for a relaxation time t = /E = 1.
In the numerical analysis three different hardening/softening behaviors were considered in the viscoplastic interface model: a perfect viscoplastic, a
hardening and a softening behavior. From Figure 5
can be observed that while for perfect viscoplasticity the stress state relaxes up to the elastoplastic
strength limit, the relaxation process in the viscoelastic model has no limit and causes a stress reduction up to zero value in the final stage. On the
other hand we observe that contrarily to the perfect viscoplasticity case, the hardening and softening viscoplastic behaviors lead to final stress stages
that do not agree with the strength limit.
The results in Figure 4 illustrate clearly the controlling effect of the viscosity on the rate of the
stress relaxation process.
From a physical standpoint, it is important to
realize that the controlling factor in the relaxation
process is the relative time t/t . The absolute time
t [0; 1) is regarded to be short or long only when
compared to the natural relaxation time t = /E.
We explore now the creep test for the same set
of material parameters and for the softening behavior of the viscoplastic interface model. At time
t = 0, a constant load is applied to impose a tensile stress state just above the elastoplastic yield
limit, see Figure 1. The evolution of the normal
displacements uN against time is plotted in Figure
6 for several values of the viscosity parameter .
Once the stress state reaches the limit strength,
the softening behavior is activated and the creep
process takes place.
This is the reason for the increasing slope of the
displacement rate in Figure 6, which inversely depends on the viscosity , i.e. as the viscosity tends

0.0E+00
0

50

100

150

200
250
Time (Hours)

300

350

400

Figure 6: Creep curves - constitutive level

to zero the slope of the creep displacement rate
tends to be vertical.
6 MESO-LEVEL ANALYSIS OF TIMEDEPENDENT CONCRETE FRACTURE
In this section the creep and relaxation processes
are evaluated at the mesostructure level. To this
end, the plane finite element mesh showed in Figure 7 is considered as composed by polygonal aggregates with randomly generated shapes and locations, according to Stankowski (1990) and Lopez
(1999). The aggregates are embedded on a matrix phase which represents the mortar plus small
aggregates. A number of zero-thickness interface
elements are inserted along the aggregate-matrix
interfaces, and also across the mortar matrix in
order to capture the most relevant features of its
failure mechanism. In the present study, the triangular finite elements representing the aggregate
and mortar phases follow an elastic constitutive
law, while the rheological non-linear behavior is
attributed to the zero-thickness interfaces according to the previously described elasto-viscoplastic
rate-dependent model.
Firstly, we analyze the stress relaxation case
under a uniaxial tensile stress state considering
two meshes: a coarse mesh with a 4x4 arrangement
of aggregates and a fine mesh with a 6x6 arrangement, see Lopez (1999). In this load case, the
evolution of the stress relaxation process depends
on the applied stress level. Two situations are
distinguished, namely: a) the applied stress level
exceeds the strength of the mortar-aggregates
interfaces, representing the weakest interfaces,
and b) the stress level exceeds the inviscid
strength of the mortar-mortar interfaces. The
considered material parameters are as follows:
En = Et = 109 M P a/m, = 2M P a, c = 7M P a,
I
tan = 0.8, GIf = 0.03N/mm, GII
f = 10Gf and
dil = 40M P a (the remaining parameters are set

Figure 7: Finite Element arrangement 6x6 Mesh a)

mortar elements, b) aggregate elements, c) interface locations, d) discretization detail
to zero). For the mortar-mortar joints, the same
parameters, except that = 4M P a, c = 14M P a
and GIf = 0.06N/mm. For the continuum elements Em = 25000M P a and Eag = 70000M P a. In
both cases, =0.2, while the viscosity parameter
= 106 M P a/s and the time step t = 0.014
days. For case a), the numerical analysis is
performed imposing a deformation in such a
way that the reached stress stage exceeds by
50% the strength limit of the mortar-aggregates
interfaces, i.e. (/ = 1.5). In case b) the applied
displacement leads to an overstress that exceeds
the inviscid strength of the mortar-mortar joints
by 50%. The numerical responses for both cases
are illustrated in Figure 8. In the two considered discretizations the case a) results in a flat
relaxation curve indicating a very reduced time
dependent behavior, while the case b) leads to a
very pronounced relaxation process, according to
an exponential descending curve. The reason for
this behavior is that the stress level in case b)
activates the viscoplasticity formulation of both
mortar-aggregates and mortar-mortar interfaces.
Thus, a strong rate dependent process initiates
during which the viscoplastic overstress relaxes to
the inviscid strength of 3.0M P a according to the
adopted material parameters. In the case a) this
does not occur as only few mortar-aggregate joints
are activated by the applied stress level, while all
the mortar-mortar interfaces remain inactive.
We analyze now the creep test by means of
the 6x6 aggregate FE-mesh. To appropriately reproduce the boundary conditions of the test (the

stresses are prescribed while the vertical displacements are almost uniform due to the high stiffness
of the loading plate) the discretization in this numerical analysis includes also the upper plate as
well as the interface between the steel plate and
the concrete specimen. The computational evaluation was repeated for different stress levels that
are applied and kept constant on the 28 days old
concrete specimen. Figure 9 illustrates the nominal stress-strain evolution in the form of the wellknown isochronous curves. The curve on the left
extreme side of this figure from which evolve all
the others, represents the instantaneous response
obtained for a very low strain rate. The different curves in Figure 9 follow the instantaneous response up to a certain stress level from which the
stress is kept constant. The isochronous curves are
obtained by connecting the points that correspond
to the same time (amount of days) in the different
analyses.
Figure 9 also shows the isochronous curves by
Lopez et al (2001) for the same problem that were
obtained with a mesomechanic formulation including a elastoplastic behavior for the interface elements while a linear viscoelastic behavior is assigned to the continuum elements of the matrix
by means of a Maxwell chain model. As the delayed strains obtained with the viscoplastic model
are irreversible once the interfaces0 are inelastically
activated at the stress level /fc = 0.4 then the
corresponding isochronous curves are shown starting at this stress level.
The numerical results in Figure 9 reproduce relevant aspects that were experimentally observed
such as the non-linear stress-strain behavior which
progressively increases with the applied stress
level. Figures 10 and 11 illustrate the crack pattern in terms of the released energy obtained with
the viscoplastic interface model
for the stress
level
0
0
/f 0 c = 0.95 and for t t =100 and t t =10000
days, respectively. In the same way, Figures 12 and
13 show similar results obtained by Lopez et al.
(2001) using the viscoelastic Maxwell chain for the
matrix continuum elements while the interfaces remain inviscid. We observe that under sustained
load both models predict that the microcracking
increases with time. However, the internal mechanism developed in both cases is completely different. In the approach by Lopez et al. (2001),(2003)
the viscoelastic behavior of the matrix continuum
elements generates an internal stress redistribution
and a stress transference from the matrix to the
aggregates that are considered elastic. This is responsible for the progressive crack evolution in the
matrix-aggregate interfaces under constant external loading. Contrarily, in the elasto-viscoplastic

interface approach, time evolution is basically responsible for the increasing cracking. The elastic
behavior turns into the inviscid elastoplastic one
as time tends to infinity, providing the activation
of the inelastic response.
In both approaches the crack evolution is more
severe as the applied constant stress level increases.
This is the reason for the increasing nonlinearity
shown by the isochronous curves.
The different internal responses obtained with
the considered approaches for the simulation of
the time-dependence effect in the mesomechanic
analyses in this work, see Figure 9 infers the importance to consider a combination between both
time-dependent formulations to realistically predict concrete creep behavior at the mesomechanic
level of observation.

Figure 10: Energy dissipation t-t=100 days - viscoplasticity

6.0

s(MPa)

Case a) Concrete Mesostructure - 4x4 Mesh

Case a) Concrete Mesostructure - 6x6 Mesh

5.0

Case b) Concrete Mesostructure - 4x4 Mesh

Case b) Concrete Mesostructure - 6x6 Mesh

4.0

3.0

2.0
0

50

100

150

Figure 11: Energy dissipation t-t=10000 days viscoplasticity

200

Time (days)

Figure 8: Relaxation test - concrete mesostructure

1.2

s /fc
1.0

0.8

0.6

Instantaneous
t - t' = 18 - Viscoelasticity
t - t' = 100 - Viscoelasticity
t - t' = 1000 - Viscoelasticity
t - t' = 10000 - Viscoelasticity
t - t' = 18 - Viscoplasticity
t - t' = 100 - Viscoplasticity
t - t' = 1000 - Viscoplasticity
t - t' = 10000 - Viscoplasticity

0.4

0.2

0.0
0

0.001

0.002

0.003

Figure 9: Creep test - isochrone curves

7 CONCLUSIONS
From the obtained results we conclude that
the Perzynas based rate-dependent interface

Figure 12: Energy dissipation t-t=100 days (Lopez

et al. (2001))
model is able to capture the main features
of time/rate-dependent concrete failure under
sustained loads/strains, like basic creep, stress
relaxation and increasing non-linearity of the
isochronous curves for increasing stress levels.
The mesomechanic level of observation combined
with a viscoplastic theory allows to numerically

Figure 13: Energy dissipation t-t=10000 days

(Lopez et al. (2001))
evaluate the influence of the composite mesostructure including the coupling between creep and
fracture processes in a realistic manner. However,
the inclusion of the viscoelastic Maxwell chain
model for the continuum matrix elements as
considered by Lopez et al (2001), (2003) seems to
be necessary to fully capture the time dependent
effects of concrete at the mesostructure level of
observation.
8 REFERENCES
Bazant, Z. P., ed.(1986). Fourth RILEM International Symposium on Creep and Shrinkage of
Concrete: Mathematical Modeling, Northwestern
University.
Bazant, Z.P. and Panula, C. (1997). Double
power law for concrete creep. Journal of Engineering Mechanics, 111, pp. 63-84.
Bazant, Z.P. and Wittman, F.H.(1982). Mathematical modelling of creep and shrinkage of
Concrete. J.Wiley & Sons L., New York.
Benboudjema, F.(2002). Modelisation des Deformations Differees du Beton sous Sollicitations
Biaxiales. Application aux Enceintes de Confinement de Batiments Reacteurs des Centrales
Nucleaires. PhD. dissertation, University of
Marne-La-Vallee, France (in french).
Bodner S.R. and and Partom, Y. (1975).Constitutive equations for elastic-viscoplastic strainhardening materials. Journal Applied Mech., 42,
(2), pp. 385-389.
Carol, I., Prat, P. and Lopez, C.M. (1997). A
normal/shear cracking model. Interface implementation for discrete analysis. J.Eng.Mech., ASCE,
123(8), pp. 765-773.
Carosio, A. (2001). Viscoplasticidad Continua y
Consistente. PhD. Thesis (in Spanish), University

of Tucuman, Argentina.
Carosio, A.,Willam, K. and Etse, G. (2000). On
the Consistency of Viscoplastic Formulations.
Int. J. Solids and Structures, 37, pp. 7349-7369.
Ciancio, D. Lopez, C.M. and Carol, I. (2003).Mesomechanical investigation of concrete basic creep
and shrinkage by using interface elements. 16
AIMETA Congress on Theoretical and Applied
Mechanics, pp. 121-125.
Desai, C.S. and Zhang, D.(1987). Viscoplastic
models for geologic materials with generalized
flow rule. Int. J. Num. and Analytical Methods
in Geomechanics, 11, pp. 603-620.
Domone, P.L. (1974).Uniaxial tensile creep
and failure of concrete. Magazine of Concrete
Research, 26, (88), pp. 144-152.
Duvaut, G. and Lions, J.L. (1972).Les inequations en mechanique et en physique. Dunod,
Paris.
Etse, G. and Carosio, A. (2002). Diffuse and localized failure predictions of Perzyna viscoplastic
models for cohesive-frictional materials. Latin
American Applied Research, 32, pp. 21-31.
Etse, G., Lorefice, R., Lopez, C.M. and Carol, I.
(2004). Meso and Macromechanic Approaches for
Rate Dependent Analysis of Concrete Behavior.
International Workshop in Fracture Mechanics of
Concrete Structures. Vail, Colorado, USA.
Lorefice, R., Etse, G. and Carol, I. (2005). A viscoplastic model for mesomechanic rate-dependent
analysis of Concrete. Submitted to Int. J. of
Plasticity.
Etse, G., and Willam, K.(1999). Failure Analysis of Elastoviscoplastic Material Models.
J.Engng.Mech., (125), 1, pp. 60-69.
Granger, L. (1994). Comportement differe du
beton dans les enceintes de centrales nucleaires:
analyse et modelisation. PhD. Thesis, ENPC,
Paris, France.
Granger, L.P. and Ba
z ant, Z.P.(1995).Effect of
Composition on Basic Creep of Concrete and
Cement Paste. J. Eng. Mech., ASCE, 121 (11),
pp. 1261-1270.
Lopez Garello, C.M. (1999). Analisis Microestructural de la Fractura del Hormigon
Utilizando Elementos Tipo Junta. Aplicacion a
Diferentes Hormigones. PhD Thesis, Universitat
Politecnica de Catalunya, Spain.
Lopez, C.M., Carol, I. and Murcia, J. (2001).
Mesostructural modelling of basic creep at various
stress levels. Creep, Shrinkage and Durability
Mechanics of Concrete and Other Quasi-Brittle
Materials. F.J. Ulm, Z.P. Bazant, F.H. Wittmann
(Eds.), pp. 101-106.
Lopez, C.M., Ciancio, D., Carol, I., Murcia, J.
and Cuomo, M. (2003). Analisis microestructural

de la fluencia basica del hormigon mediante elementos junta. Anales de Mecanica de la fractura
, 20,95-100. ISSN: 0213-3725 (in spanish).
Mehta, P.K. and Monteiro, P.J.M.(1993). Concrete: Structure, Properties, and Materials, 2nd
Edition, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
Neville, A.(1996). Creep of concrete: plain, reinforced and prestressed. North Holland Publishing
Company, Amsterdam. The Netherland.
Perzyna, P. (1963). The Constitutive Equations
for Rate Sensitive Materials. Quarter of Applied
Mathematics, 20, pp. 321-332. Perzyna, P. (1966).
Fundamental Problems in Viscoplasticity. Advances in Applied Mechanics, 9, pp. 244-368.
Perzyna, P. (1966). Fundamental problems in
viscoplasticity. Advances in Applied Mechanics,
9, pp. 244-368.
Ponthot, J.P. (1995).Radial Return Extensions
for Viscoplasticity and Lubricated Friction. Proc.
Int. Conference on Struc. Mechanics in Reactor
Technology SMIRT-13. Porto Alegre, Brazil, 2,
pp. 711-722.
Rossi, P., and Acker, P.(1988).A New Approach
to the Basic Creep and Relaxation of Concrete,
Cement and Concrete Research, 18, pp. 799-803.
Rossi, P., Godart, N., Robert J.L., Gervais,
J.P., and Bruhat, D.(1994). Investigation of the
Basic Creep of Concrete by Acoustic Emission,
Materials and Structures, 27, pp. 510-514.
Simo, J.C., Hughes, T.J.R.(1998). Elastoplasticity and Viscoplasticity. Computational aspects.
Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
Sluys, J.L.(1992). Wave Propagation and Dispersion in Softening Solids. PhD Thesis, TU-Delft.
The Netherlands.
Stankowski, T.(1990). Numerical Simulation of
Progressive Failure in Particle Composites. PhD
Thesis, Univ. Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA.
Wang, W.M.(1997). Stationary and Propagative
Instabilities in Metals - A Computational Point of
View. PhD Thesis. TU-Delft. The Netherlands.
Wang, W., Sluys, L. and de Borst R. (1997). Viscoplasticity for instabilities due to strain softening
and strain-rate softening. Int. J.Num.Methods in
Engrg., 40, 3839-3864.
Weiss, J.D.(1999).Prediction of early-age shrinkage cracking in concrete. PhD. Thesis, Northwestern Univ.,Illinois, USA.
Westman, G. (1994).Basic creep and relaxation
of young concrete. Proc. of Int. Rilem Symp.,
Munich, 21(68), pp. 87-94.