See

discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315288275

EARLY-AGE THERMAL CRACKING IN

CONCRETE STRUCTURES -THE ROLE OF ZERO-
STRESS TEMPERATURE?

Conference Paper · January 2016

CITATIONS READS

0 558

3 authors:

Duy Huu Nguyen Pietro Lura

The University of Queensland Empa - Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materi…
6 PUBLICATIONS 7 CITATIONS 157 PUBLICATIONS 2,831 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Vinh Dao
The University of Queensland
37 PUBLICATIONS 101 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Plastic shrinkage cracking in concrete: from mechanisms to mitigation strategies View project

Breakthrough in non-destructive research of physicochemical behaviour of bitumen emulsion-based

composites View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Duy Huu Nguyen on 17 March 2017.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 ADM-1 Analytical and Design Methods

EARLY-AGE THERMAL CRACKING IN CONCRETE

STRUCTURES - THE ROLE OF ZERO-STRESS TEMPERATURE?

Vinh The Ngoc Dao1, Duy Nguyen1 and Pietro Lura2,3

1
School of Civil Engineering, The University of Queensland, Australia
2
Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Switzerland
3
Institute for Building Materials (IfB), ETH Zurich, Switzerland

ABSTRACT
Despite significant past research, early-age thermal cracking remains an ongoing major
concern to the concrete construction industry, seriously compromising the performance and
aesthetics of concrete structures. This paper first highlights major knowledge gaps related to
early-age thermal cracking and the need for addressing such gaps. It is argued that
knowledge of the spatial and temporal variations of zero-stress temperature, among others,
is critical if reliable crack control is to be realized. On that basis, the paper outlines key
relevant features of an ongoing novel research program at The University of Queensland:
The combined reliable data from the unique direct tensile and uniaxial restraint tests would
allow to effectively address identified knowledge gaps, thereby providing a solid basis for
more effective control of early-age thermal cracking – a problem of great economic
significance worldwide.
Keywords: early-age concrete, thermal cracking, zero-stress temperature, creep, restraint.

1. INTRODUCTION

Early-age cracking in concrete structures, including that caused by restrained thermal

deformation, remains an ongoing problem of great economic significance worldwide due
to a lack of holistic understanding of the underlying phenomena and their influencing
factors. This form of early cracking and its further development at later ages can seriously
compromise the integrity, durability, aesthetics, and long-term service life of wide-ranging
types of concrete structures. The effective control of such cracking is of particular concern
not only for highway pavements, bridge decks, tunnel linings as well as industrial and
residential slabs and walls, but also for containment facilities for liquid and hazardous
wastes (RILEM Commission 42-CEA 1981, Cement and Concrete Association of New
Zealand 2001, Schindler and McCullough 2002, Bamforth 2007, Byard, Schindler et al.
2010, Bertagnoli, Tondolo et al. 2011). Early-age thermal cracking has thus been
identified as among the most prevalent forms of defects in concrete structures worldwide
(Neville 2000, Cement and Concrete Association of New Zealand 2001, Queensland
Department of Transport and Mains Road 2004, Byard, Schindler et al. 2010). The recent
increasing use of concrete mixes with higher early strengths and lower water-binder ratios
692
appears to have increased the susceptibility of concrete structures to this form of cracking
– This trend is further exacerbated by the growing usage of higher strength steel
reinforcement that causes wider cracks.

2. Why early-age concrete thermal cracking? Why zero-

stress temperature?

When coming into contact with water, cement hydrates – The hydration of cement is a
spontaneous and exothermic process with significant heat evolution. Depending on the
dynamic balance between the heat generated inside the concrete and the heat exchange with
the surroundings (Figure 1a), there may be a temperature change or temperature differential.
If the associated thermal deformations of concrete were free to occur, they would not
cause any cracking (Figure 1b). However, these deformations are almost always restrained
in practice, causing tensile stresses to develop, which in combination with the low tensile
strength and fracture resistance of concrete, often result in early cracking. Importantly,
very often, existing cracks developed at early ages would propagate further at later stages
due to subsequent shrinkage/loading.
In principle, cracking occurs when the tensile stresses arising in the concrete reach its
tensile strength [σ] – which can be expressed mathematically as:
σ thermal = KREcε thermal = KREcα c ΔT → [σ ] (1)
where Ec: elastic modulus of concrete; εthermal: thermal deformation; R: degree of restraint;
K: creep factor; αc: concrete coefficient of thermal deformation; and ΔT: temperature
difference. Each term in Equation 1 is also highly time-dependent and affected by
many variables.

Figure 1: Sketch of (a) heat transfer process and (b) deformation and restraint.
“What should the reference temperature for ΔT be?”: Since thermal cracking risk is
determined by the absolute value of induced thermal stress, not by its change due to
thermal fluctuation, the reference temperature should correspond to σthermal being zero.
Consider a concrete specimen as in Figure 2, uninsulated and fixed at both ends:
• As cement hydrates it generates heat, initially at a rate greater than the heat loss to
the environment: This causes a temperature increase, inducing compressive stress
(i.e. negative stress in Figure 2) in the specimen as a result of restrained expansion.
Due to the low elastic modulus and the significant relaxation of concrete during this
heating stage, the compressive stress tends to be small.

693
 • Over time, the rate of heat generation progressively reduces, heat loss becomes
dominant and the concrete cools and contracts. As a result, concrete stress gradually
reduces to zero and becomes tensile (i.e. positive stress in Figure 2). During this
cooling phase, the concrete is more mature with much higher elastic modulus and
increasingly smaller stress relaxation due to ongoing hydration, resulting in possible
significant tensile stress when the temperature has equilibrated.
In Figure 2, concrete stress due to
restrained thermal deformation is zero at
Tz,1 and Tz,2. Accordingly, Tz,1 and Tz,2 are
termed zero-stress temperatures. From
these points and knowledge of temperature
and stress in concrete, variation of zero-
stress temperature over time Tz(t) can be
established:
• When the concrete temperature T(t)
is smaller than Tz(t) [that is, [Tz(t)-
T(t)] being positive], the restrained
thermal stress will be tensile;
• Conversely, negative [Tz(t)-T(t)] will
correspond to compressive thermal
stress.
The temperature difference ΔT in
Equation 1 therefore must be [Tz(t)-T(t)].
Equation 1 then becomes:
σ thermal = KREcε thermal
= KREcα c ΔT (2)
= KREcα c [Tz ( t ) − T( t )] Figure 2: Illustration of temperature
and stress evolution.
It follows that:
• The larger the ΔT, the higher the resulting tensile stress, the greater the cracking risk
and more crack-control reinforcement required.
• The developed thermal stresses at a given time thus depend not only on the actual
concrete temperature T(t) but also on Tz(t) – which provides at least partial
explanation for the likely ineffectiveness of crack-control based only on T(t)
measurement, as typically adopted in current practice. The following two examples
further demonstrate this:
• Example 1 for a slab-on-ground (Figure 3a): For the same concrete temperature T(t),
when the zero-stress temperature is lowered from Tz1 to Tz2, the concrete stress due
to restrained thermal deformation becomes less tensile, and therefore cracking risk
is reduced.
• Example 2 for a wall (Figure 3b): For the same concrete temperature T over the wall
thickness, the induced thermal stress in concrete is vastly different for different
thickness-profiles of zero-stress temperature Tz.

694
 a. For a slab-on-ground. b. For a wall.
Figure 3: Zero-stress temperature Tz and its importance.
Despite the significance of zero-stress temperature Tz(t) as clearly demonstrated above,
our current approach to combating early-age thermal cracking generally has no mention of
Tz(t) and simply limits the difference between the mean temperatures of the restrained and
the restraining concrete members to a value of between 20 and 25 oC. However, it is the
restrained thermal strain and the associated stress causing cracking (being function of
[Tz(t)-T(t)] as in Equation 2 instead of only [T(t)]) that should be limited. Indeed, several
studies have reported the inadequacy of using this simple concrete temperature criterion to
control the risk of early-age thermal cracking (Mangold and Springenschmid 1994,
Springenschmid 1994, Dux and Dao 2012), but offered limited practical alternative
solutions.
Another critical gap is how Tz evolves beyond the first heat cycles and factors
influencing this evolvement have never been investigated: Imagine extending Tz curves in
Figure 3a to a later age while keeping in mind Equation 2, it can be seen that whether Tz
remains constant or decreases over time would have significantly different implications on
the role of early thermal control:
• If Tz remains constant over time, the thermal-induced stress in mature concrete
(Equation 2) is dependent on Tz that is already established within the first several
days after placement. As a result, lowering Tz during construction by adopting
appropriate mix designs and construction practices is of paramount importance;
otherwise, significant crack-control reinforcement is required. To illustrate, for a
concrete member with Ec= 30 GPa, αc=10-5, T= 20 oC, the thermal stress in concrete
could be reduced four times by lowering Tz from 60 oC to 30 oC:
o
60 C
• If Tz is as high as 60 oC: σ thermal = KREcα c [Tz ( t ) − T ( t )] = 12KR (MPa)
• If Tz can be reduced to 30oC:
o 1 o
30 C
σ thermal = KREcα c [Tz ( t ) − T ( t )] = 3KR = σ thermal
60 C
(MPa)
4
695
 • On the other hand, if Tz decreases over time, the resulting tensile stress will
correspondingly become smaller: Requirement for controlling Tz during construction
and for crack-control reinforcement would thus be substantially lower. If this is the
case, clarification also needs to be established for such questions as: Decreasing rate
of Tz over time? Influencing factors? Tz values to be used in structural design of
crack-control reinforcement?
Therefore, knowledge of Tz development over time is critical if reliable crack control is
to be achieved. However, there does not seem any reported study on such Tz evolution in
the available literature.

3. Outline of Experimental program

To effectively address the knowledge gaps discussed above, a novel integrated research
approach has been proposed at The University of Queensland, Australia. Two major test
set-ups relevant to the discussion in this paper, namely direct tensile and uniaxial restraint
tests, are briefed in the following.

Figure 4: Direct tensile test setup and typical stress-displacement curve.

The direct tensile testing system is used to reliably capture the complete tensile stress-
strain curves of concrete from as early as immediately after casting – The reliable data
collected allows determination of several critical tensile properties of concrete, including:
elastic modulus, tensile strength, tensile strain capacity, fracture characteristics, and tensile
creep. A schematic diagram of this test setup is shown in Figure 4. Notable features of this
unique test setup include:
• The air bearing box to provide a uniform air cushion to float the test specimen that
effectively eliminates friction between the specimen and the supporting base;
• The novel application of Digital Image Correlation (DIC) that enables the desired
deformation to be reliably captured in a non-contact way.
The uniaxial restraint test (Figure 5) is used to investigate zero-stress temperature,
autogenous and thermal deformation, creep effect and degree of restraint. Basically, two
parallel series of concrete specimens are subject to identical temperature variations with no

696
moisture interaction with surroundings, making plastic/drying shrinkage negligible to
allow the evaluation of the effect of temperature and autogenous deformations:
• The unrestrained specimen has one end fixed and the other end free to move.
• The other specimen is restrained at the desired degree of restraint R: One end of this
specimen is fixed and the other is movable. When the adjustable end displaces up to
a chosen threshold strain (~0.001 mm), the displacement recovery system f is
activated to load the specimen until the desired degree of restraint R is achieved. The
load is then kept constant until the threshold strain is reached again, activating the
step motor for the next cycle.

Figure 5: Uniaxial restrained test setup.

During testing, the time history of concrete temperature and deformation of test
specimen over the region of interest will be recorded via thermocouples, strain gages, laser
sensors and Digital Image Correlation. Thermocouples and strain gages will also be
installed at carefully-chosen locations in a number of concrete elements (walls, slabs,…)
cast using known concrete mixtures and curing measures. The time-evolution of concrete
temperature T(t) recorded at different locations allows to evaluate (i) the spatial and
temporal variation of Tz and (ii) the degree of restraint R.
Importantly, the high degree of control offered in the uniaxial restraint test and the
presence of both a free deformation and a restrained specimen also allows the (i)
separation of autogenous shrinkage and thermal deformation, (ii) assessment of creep
effect K, (iii) re-evaluation of the degree of restraint R.

4. CONCLUSIONS

This paper has clearly highlighted major knowledge gaps related to early-age thermal
cracking and the need for addressing such gaps. It has been argued that knowledge of the
spatial and temporal variations of zero-stress temperature, among others, is critical if
reliable crack control is to be achieved. On that basis, key relevant features of an ongoing

697
novel research program at The University of Queensland have been briefed. Combined
reliable data from the unique direct tensile and uniaxial restraint tests would allow to
achieve the intended research aims, thereby enabling effective control of early-age thermal
cracking – a problem of great economic significance worldwide.

REFERENCES

Bamforth, P. B. (2007). Early-age thermal crack control in concrete (CIRIA C660). London, UK,
CIRIA.
Bertagnoli, G., F. Tondolo and G. Mancini (2011). "Early age cracking of massive concrete piers."
Magazine of Concrete Research 63(10): 723-736.
Byard, B. E., A. K. Schindler, R. W. Barnes and A. Rao (2010). "Cracking tendency of bridge deck
concrete." Transportation Research Record (2164): 122-131.
Cement and Concrete Association of New Zealand (2001). Comparison of industrial concrete floor
slabs in the Auckland and Christchurch Markets: 40 pp.
Dux, P. F. and V. T. N. Dao (2012). Early-age Cracking, Concrete Institute of Australia.
Mangold, M. and R. Springenschmid (1994). Why are temperature-related criteria so unreliable for
predicting thermal cracking at early ages? Thermal cracking in concrete at early ages. R.
Springenschmid. London, E & FN Spon: 361-368.
Neville, A. (2000). "Good reinforced concrete in the Arabian Gulf." Materials and Structures 33(10):
655-664.
Queensland Department of Transport and Mains Road (2004). Bridge Inspection Manual - Part 2:
Deterioration Mechanisms: 70.
RILEM Commission 42-CEA (1981). "Properties of set concrete at early ages - State-of-the-art
report." Materials and Structures/Materiaux et Constructions 14(84): 399-450.
Schindler, A. K. and B. F. McCullough (2002). "The importance of concrete temperature control
during concrete pavement construction in hot weather conditions." Journal of the Transportation
Research Board(1813): 3-10.
Springenschmid, R., Ed. (1994). Thermal cracking in concrete at early ages. London, E & FN Spon.

698
View publication stats