Surgically Inspired Technique of ITZ Integration in Lattice Model for Numerical Simulation of Cement Composites

The extent to which an Interfacial Transition Zone (ITZ) contributes to mechanical behavior of cement pastes and mortars is under debate. To investigate this debatable issue, a new organ-transplantation-mimetic technique for building up a 3-D ITZ, which can be embedded into mortar and concrete to numerically simulate their mechanical behaviors, is developed. Inspired by serotyping through which transplant rejection can be reduced, we define a Compatibility Factor (CF), an index for evaluating to which degree two moieties are likely to reject. Thus the moieties of the integrated ITZ exhibit good compatibility with each other and so does the ITZ with bulk paste. For the first time, the established model enables one to endow ITZ elements at different loci with varying properties according to ITZ-load orientation and of ITZ thickness, both of which are demonstrated to have notable impacts on ITZ’s mechanical properties by numerically simulated tensile load tests in micro- and meso-scale levels. Besides mechanical performances, this novel approach is potentially capable of predicting transport properties such as ion diffusivity.