Cracking Tendency Prediction of High-Performance Cementitious Materials

Abstract

The constraint ring test is widely used to assess the cracking potential for early-age cementitious materials. In this paper, the analytical expressions based on elastic mechanism are presented to estimate the residual stresses of the restrained mortar ring by considering the comprehensive effects of hydration heat, autogenous and drying shrinkage, creeping, and restraint. In the present analytical method, the stress field of the restrained ring is treated as the superposition of those caused by hydration heat, external restraint, autogenous and drying shrinkage, and creep. The factors including the properties of materials, environmental parameters such as relative humidity and temperature, the geometry effect of specimen, and the relative constraint effects of steel ring to mortar ring, are taken into account to predict the strain development with age of mortar. The temperature of the ring, the elastic modulus, the creep strain, and the split tensile strength are measured to validate the model. The age of cracking is predicted by comparing the estimated maximum tensile stress of the restrained mortar ring with the measured split tensile strength of specimen. The suitability of the present analytical method is assessed by comparing with the restraint ring test and a soundly good agreement is observed.