CRACKS IN CONCRETE

Overall view and Study of causes

CRACKS IN CONCRETE

Cracks in concrete can be broadly classified

in two categories

Before Hardening
After Hardening

CRACKS
IN
Before
Hardening

CONCRETE

a)Drying of concrete
b)Due to constructional problems
c)Early frost damage

CRACKS
IN CONCRETE
A) Drying
of Concrete

Plastic shrinkage
Settlement shrinkage
Bleeding
Delayed curing

CRACKS IN CONCRETE
Plastic Shrinkage Cracks
When the loss of water from surface of concrete is
faster than the migration of water from interiors to
the surface, the surface dries up. This creates
moisture gradient which results in surface cracking
while concrete is still in plastic condition.
The magnitude of crack depends upon ambient
temperature ,relative humidity and wind velocity.

CRACKS IN CONCRETE
Plastic Shrinkage Cracks
Can be reduced or eliminated by
a ) Moisten the sub grade and formworks
b ) Erect temporary roof to protect green concrete from hot sun.
c ) Erect temporary wind breakers to reduce wind velocity over
concrete.
d ) Reduce the time between placing and finishing .
e ) Minimize evaporation by covering concrete, fog spray and curing
compound.

CRACKS IN CONCRETE
Settlement Cracks
Plastic concrete when vibrated or otherwise
settles. If the concrete is free to settle uniformly,
then there is no crack . If there is any obstruction
to uniform settlement by way of reinforcement or
large pieces of aggregate then it creates some
voids or cracks. This is called settlement cracks.

CRACKS IN CONCRETE
Settlement Cracks
Can be eliminated by
Concrete to be poured in layers and each
layer to be well compacted.
Building of large quantity of concrete over a
beam to be avoided.

CRACKS IN CONCRETE
Bleeding
The upward movement of water when concrete
settles downwards is natural in concrete . The
bleeding water in certain situation may not come
up to the surface, but bleeding takes place.

CRACKS IN CONCRETE
Delayed curing
Fundamental requirement for good concrete is to
maintain uninterrupted hydration especially at early
stages when the hydration process is faster.
Modern high grade cements being finely ground
with higher C3S contents needs early curing
particularly in hot weather conditions.

CRACKS IN CONCRETE
Before Hardening
b ) Due to constructional problems
1 ) Formwork movement
2 ) Excess Vibration
3 ) Sub grade settlement
4 ) Finishing

CRACKS IN CONCRETE
Before Hardening
c ) Early frost damage
Freshly mixed concrete must not be exposed to freezing
conditions to protect the same from disruptive action of ice
lens. Ice lens will assume 9 % more volume than
equivalent water volume. It is reported that significant
ultimate strength reduction up to about 50% can occur if
concrete is frozen within a few hours after placement or
before it attains a compressive strength of 3.5Mpa.

CRACKS IN CONCRETE

After Hardening

Unsound material
Long term drying shrinkage
Thermal
Moisture movements
Transition zone
Biological
Structural design deficiencies
Chemical reaction
Corrosion of reinforcement

CRACKS IN CONCRETE

Unsound material
Cement

Considered unsound when they causes unacceptable extent of

volume change in hardened concrete or mortar which causes
cracks and affects durability.
Considered unsound when Cement contents more lime
Raw material are not properly burnt to required temperature for
Lime to get fully combined with other oxides, cement becomes
Unsound .
Presence of Mgo, CaO can also cause unsoundness.
Excess of gypsum will cause unsoundness.

CRACKS IN CONCRETE
Aggregate
Contains certain material such as shale, clay
lumps, coal, iron pyrites etc. show unsoundness
when concrete undergoes wetting and drying or
freezing.
Moisture absorption is often used as rough index
for unsoundness.

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Sand

Crushed sand is likely to contain considerable amount of

dust.
Excess dust ( fine particles less than 75 microns) is harmful
from many point of view and more important being that it
causes cracks in concrete.
Excess silt in sand interface with setting time, shrinkage
and bond strength, reduction in tensile strength and
shrinkage cracks.
Contributory cause of cracks in plaster is the presence of
excessive silt and mud in natural sand.

CRACKS IN CONCRETE
After Hardening
Shrinkage
Shrinkage is mainly responsible for causing
cracks of larger magnitude or minor micro cracks
Drying Shrinkage
Thermal Cracks ( Heat of Hydration)
Thermal Cracks ( External Temp.)

CRACKS IN CONCRETE

CRACKS IN CONCRETE
Drying Shrinkage
Shrinkage is one of the fundamental reasons for
initial induction of micro cracks in concrete
Pattern of shrinkage is a function of Cement
content, water content and W/C ratio.
Constant W/C ratio, shrinkage increases with an
increase in cement content.
At lower W/C ratio, concrete is stronger to resist
shrinkage .

CRACKS IN CONCRETE
Shrinkage increases with time but at a
decreasing rate.
50% of shrinkage will have taken place in about
35 days and therefore concrete is much more
vulnerable to cracking in spite of stress
relaxation by high creep at low strength

CRACKS IN CONCRETE
Thermal Shrinkage ( Associated with heat of Hydration)
Large quantity of heat could be librated in the hydration of
cement.
Thermal conductivity of concrete is low, very high
temperature could be generated in the interior of large mass
of concrete.
Exterior concrete mass looses heat with result a steep
temperature gradient.
During subsequent cooling of the interior, serious cracking
may take place

CRACKS IN CONCRETE

CRACKS IN CONCRETE

CRACKS IN CONCRETE
Thermal Shrinkage ( Associated with heat of Hydration)
Evolution of heat and total heat generated depends on the
compound composition of cement
C3S and C3A produce large amount of heat in short time.
Fineness of cement also influences the rate of heat developed.
It is advantages to use low cement content and Blended cement.
Blended cement with high Pozzolonic material content gives out
the heat rather slowly.

CRACKS IN CONCRETE
Thermal Shrinkage ( External Temp)
Concrete is subjected to seasonal changes of
temperature due to which it expands and
contracts.
Since the structure is not free to expand and
contract due to restraint supports considerable
tensile stress more than the tensile strength of
concrete is generated resulting in Cracks.

CRACKS IN CONCRETE

CRACKS IN CONCRETE
Flexural strength of M 25 concrete
= 0.7 fck = 3.5 N/mm2
Assuming coefficient of Thermal expansion of concrete
= 10x10e-6
and 20 degree variation in temperature
Tensile stress = 5.0 N/mm2
Tensile strength of concrete = 3.5 N/mm2 which is less
than Tensile stree is sure to cause micro cracks in
concrete.

CRACKS IN CONCRETE
Joints in Concrete
Joints in concrete can be broadly classified in 4
categories
Construction Joints
Expansion Joints
Contraction Joints
Isolation Joints

CRACKS IN CONCRETE
Construction Joints
Joints must be made at such places that concrete is
less vulnerable to max. BM and max. SF.
Walls and columns joints to kept horizontal
Joints in slabs and beams should be formed at the point
of minimum shear and not at point of maximum BM.
Joints to be made at extreme position or middle third.

CRACKS IN CONCRETE
Expansion Joints
Long building experience large expansion.
Therefore building longer than 45M are
generally provided with one or more expansion
joints.

CRACKS IN CONCRETE
Contraction Joints
When shrinkage is restrained, stress are developed
which results in the formation of cracks. To avoid
these cracks, contraction joints are provided.
Normally joints provided at a interval of 5 to 10 M
These joints will not be necessary if sufficient
reinforcement is provided to take up shrinkage
stresses.

CRACKS IN CONCRETE
Isolation Joints
Provided where the4 concrete floor meets the
permanent structural element such as walls,
columns, foundation block, machine foundation.
It is provided to the full depth of concrete floor.
The width of such joints is about 10 to 12mm.

CRACKS IN CONCRETE
Moisture Movement
The property of swelling when placed in wet condition and
shrinking when placed in dry condition is referred as moisture
movement in concrete.
If concrete sample subjected to drying condition at some stage
is subjected to wetting condition, it starts swelling.
Initial drying shrinkage is not recovered even after prolonged
storage in water. Irreversible shrinkage represents between 0.3
to 0.6 of drying shrinkage.
Moisture movement in concrete induce alternatively
compressive and tensile stress which may cause fatigue in
concrete

CRACKS IN CONCRETE
Biological Process
In many buildings, plants grow and the roots slowly
penetrates into concrete or small cracks in concrete and
converts it into bigger cracks with further growth. Humic acid
is produced by micro growth which reacts with cement.
Hydrogen sulphide gets oxidized by aerobic bacteria
producing sulphuric acid. Algae, fungi and bacteria use
atmospheric nitrogen to form nitric acid. These acids attacks
concrete and progressive deterioration of concrete takes
place.

CRACKS IN CONCRETE

Structural Design deficiencies

Inadequate provision of main steel reinforcement, wrong spacing
of bars, absence of corner reinforcement may cause unacceptable
cracks in concrete.
Most common occurrence
Cantilever thin chajja
Congestion of reinforcement and difficult in proper concreting.
Column beam joints , Deep beams
More than permissible deflection
Heavy point loads / no proper shear reinforcement
Conduits in concrete.

CRACKS IN CONCRETE
Chemical Action
Sulphate Attack
Alkali-Aggregate reaction
Acid attacks
Concrete in Sea water
Carbonation
Choride attacks

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CRACKS IN CONCRETE

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Corrosion of Steel
It can be noted that no corrosion takes place if the concrete is dry
or probably below 60% relative humidity because enough water
is not there to promote corrosion.
Corrosion does not take place if concrete is fully immersed in
water because diffusion of oxygen does not take place into the
concrete.
The optimum relative humidity for corrosion is 70 to80 %
The product of corrosion occupy a volume of 6 times the original
volume of steel depending upon the oxidation state.
The increased volume of rust exerts thrust on cover concrete
resulting in cracks & spalling.

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CRACKS IN CONCRETE
Design & Detailing
Nominal cover to reinforcement
Nominal cover is applicable to all steel reinforcement including
links
Recommended cover for reinforcement for moderate exposure
of concrete
Column
- 40mm
Footing
- 50mm
Beams
- 25mm
Slabs
- 15 to 20mm

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CRACKS IN CONCRETE
Crack Width
IS 456:2000 specifies crack width
The surface width of crack should not in general exceed
0.3mm where cracking is not harmful and does not have any
serious adverse effect on the preservation of reinforcing steel
nor upon the durability of structure
For severe category of exposure condition, the surface width
of crack should not in general exceed 0.1mm
FIP( International Prestressing Federation) recommends the
maximum crack width at the main reinforcement to be 0.004
times the nominal cover.

CRACKS IN CONCRETE

CRACKS IN CONCRETE

CRACKS IN CONCRETE
It may not be out of place to emphasize that we
Civil Engineers, Builders, Site Engineers,
Teachers, Concrete Technologist and all others
who are involved in making of concrete, have a lot
of responsibility for making durable concrete for
which our country spends about 25% of national
annual budget.

THANK YOU