ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Built Environ.
Sec. Construction Materials
Study on the dynamic response of fresh concrete under surface vibration
Provisionally accepted
- 1China Communications Fourth Navigation Engineering Bureau Co., LTD., Guangzhou, China
- 2College of Water Conservancy and Hydropower, Hohai University, Nanjing, China
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To investigate the dynamic response of fresh concrete under surface vibration, a mesoscopic model of fresh concrete subjected to surface vibration was established using the Discrete Element Method (DEM). The evolution characteristics of particle velocity fields, contact force chain networks, and internal energy absorption fields during the vibration process were systematically analyzed. The results indicate that the particle velocity field exhibits an axisymmetric distribution with the vertical centerline of the specimen as the symmetry axis. The velocity magnitude attenuated in a "fan-shaped" pattern from the bottom of the surface vibrator and transitioned to a "U-shaped" distribution, with the velocity magnitude decreasing from 10⁻¹ m/s to 10⁻² m/s, representing a significant attenuation range. The contact force chain network initially formed loop structures, subsequently evolved into "root-like" configurations, and ultimately underwent buckling to form buckled structures. The probability of normal contact force chains decreased with an increase in the normalized contact force (defined as contact force/average contact force), while the probability of tangential contact force chains increased initially and subsequently decreased with the normalized contact force. During vibration, the translational kinetic energy increased rapidly initially and then gradually stabilized, whereas the rotational kinetic energy increased initially, decreased subsequently, and finally stabilized. The average translational kinetic energy of particles in the entire specimen was 0.098 J, and the average rotational kinetic energy was approximately 0.0007 J, indicating that the rotational kinetic energy of particles was negligible compared to the translational kinetic energy. These findings provide valuable insights into the compaction mechanisms of fresh concrete under surface vibration.
Keywords: Surface vibration, Fresh concrete, discrete element, mesoscopic dynamic response, Compactness, Energy
Received: 11 Oct 2025; Accepted: 30 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yu, Chen, He and Tian. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Zhenghong Tian
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