Influence of depth on the cracking of plastic concrete

Author(s): Riaan Combrinck, Lourens Steyl, William Peter Boshoff
Paper category: Proceedings
Book title: Proceedings of the 2nd International RILEM/COST Conference on Early Age Cracking and Serviceability in Cement-based Materials and Structures Volume 2
Editor(s): Stéphanie Staquet and Dimitrios Aggelis
ISBN: 978-2-35158-200-8
e-ISBN: 978-2-35158-198-8
Publisher: RILEM Publications SARL
Publication year: 2017
Pages: 843-848
Total Pages: 6
Language : English

Abstract: Plastic concrete refers to concrete that has just been cast up to around the final setting time. The two types of cracking that occur in this period for conventional concrete are plastic settlement and plastic shrinkage cracking. Plastic settlement cracking is caused by differential settlement of the concrete around rigid inclusions such as reinforcing steel while plastic shrinkage cracking is caused by capillary pressure build up within the concrete pore system due to evaporation. Research regarding the influence of element depth on plastic cracking behaviour is especially rare and therefore largely unknown. This paper investigates the influence of depth on plastic shrinkage cracking individually as well as in combination with plastic settlement cracking. The results show that deeper concrete elements have less severe plastic shrinkage cracking when no plastic settlement cracking is present while when combined with plastic settlement cracking at similar cover depths the cracking is more severe in deeper concrete. The paper also describes the fundamental cracking behaviour as observed below the concrete surface and finally highlights the importance and need for research in this field to be conducted on the combined effect of both cracking types.

Online publication : 2017
Publication type : full_text
Public price (Euros) : 0.00