Concrete Breakout Cone properties

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epratt1
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed May 29, 2024 10:04 pm

Concrete Breakout Cone properties

Post by epratt1 » Mon Aug 03, 2026 10:36 pm

Dear STKO

I will be building a model to simulate a headed stud embedded in a block of concrete, to test for concrete breakout cone capacity.

I am planning to use ASDConcrete3D solid elements, but was wondering if that is the best material to use for shear dominated (or diagonal tension) failure mode?

Also, for solid blocks, what brick element would be best for this (bbarBrick, or others?), and is the best mesh Structured, Hexa, Linear or would an Unstructured, Tetra be better for this simulation?

Please advise with any suggestions.

Thank you!

Erin

STKO Team
Posts: 3066
Joined: Tue Oct 29, 2019 8:45 am

Re: Concrete Breakout Cone properties

Post by STKO Team » Wed Aug 26, 2026 7:57 am

Dear user,
I am planning to use ASDConcrete3D solid elements, but was wondering if that is the best material to use for shear dominated (or diagonal tension) failure mode?
The ASDConcrete3D is a full 3D plastic/damage material so it should be able to model it properly.
Also, for solid blocks, what brick element would be best for this (bbarBrick, or others?), and is the best mesh Structured, Hexa, Linear or would an Unstructured, Tetra be better for this simulation?
There is not a unique rule, but here are few tips:
Hexahedron are better than tetrahedron: yes, but not always! if you manage to have a regular mesh with small distortion it holds true, othertwise it's better a regular tetra mesh rather than a distorted hexa mesh (and if you plan to do a detailed micro model of this , unstructured tetra is probably your choice)
B-Bar bricks vs stdBrick: typically the b-bar is better but it only improves the volumetric-locking problems, that can happen with almost-incrompressible materials: when the poisson's ratio is close 0.5, or with (steel) Von Mises plasticity, where the plastic part of the deformation is incompressible. Not your case with concrete.

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