Virtual Cooling Test
A virtual cooling test on a 3D concrete specimen built particle by particle, from crushed stone, sand, air voids and mortar, that gives the thermal conductivity and diffusivity of the mix.
Virtual cooling test
Build a cylinder or prism of your mix, see the particles and the mesh in 3D, and cool it in running water as in the laboratory test. The cooling curves at the center and the side give the conductivity and diffusivity, with the density and specific heat of the mix.
Each test is a full 3D finite element analysis and runs on the same machine as the thermal stress analyzer, so it needs the analyzer beta. A 4×8 in prism takes about ten minutes; a 6×12 in cylinder with every particle takes much longer. The quick estimate is instant.
From the mix to conductivity
Mesoscale specimen
Crushed stones, sand grains and spherical air voids packed in the mortar from the mix proportions, in a cylinder or prism of any size.
Transient cooling test
The heated specimen is cooled by running water at a set temperature and film coefficient, as in the laboratory.
Fitted properties
Conductivity and diffusivity from the decay of the center temperature, with density and specific heat of the mix.
Studies, and the analyzer
Random laboratory specimens with batching scatter, mix sweeps and mesh convergence — and the conductivity sent straight to the analyzer's Material tab.