The following paper has just been published from “Cement and Concrete Composite”:
H. Sasano, I. Maruyama, Investigation into the changes in the splitting tensile strength of concrete subjected to long-term drying using a three-phase mesoscale RBSM, Cement and Concrete Composites. 148 (2024) 105462. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cemconcomp.2024.105462.

In this paper, a rigid-body spring network model is used by calibrating the constitutive laws of the mortar, after which the aggregate particles are explicitly incorporated into the target concrete mesh, and a splitting tensile strength test is performed on the computer precisely. We developed the precise constitutive laws of mortar about strength, Young’s modulus, creep, and shrinkage, and evaluate how the strength of concrete is changed after drying.
Like the compressive strength tests, it was eventually shown that the strength of the mortar, as modified by these cracks (damage) and the colloidal nature of the C-S-H, determines the tensile strength.