Résumé
For the purpose of studying the elastic behavior of concrete, a 3-D finite element model is used. A realistic method to represent concrete is adopted. At mesoscopic level, concrete is considered as a bi-phase material where coarse aggregates are dispersed in the mortar paste. The coarse aggregates are represented as spheres and placed randomly in a cylindrical concrete specimen. The aggregate generation should respect the De Larrard model where the minimum paste thickness is taken into consideration. This generation should also respect a specific aggregate size distribution curve. A method to mesh the aggregates and the mortar separately is used. As a result, Different concrete specimens having different aggregate distribution and different aggregate content are generated. At that stage, a compression test is applied to each specimen in order to show the influence of the aggregate generation on the concrete properties. The numerical approach is validated using experimental results issued from previous work and compared to a homogenization method. This model shows interesting results which can be used to predict the elastic behavior of concrete.