Comparative Study Between Strain Gages for Determination of Autogenous Shrinkage

Abstract

The Carlson-type strain gages are the most suitable for the measurement of autogenous shrinkage. However, your high cost is usually a limiting factor for your employment. A more economical alternative would be the use of Self-Temperature-Compensation Gages to be embedded in concrete. The main objective of this work was to verify if Self Temperature-Compensation Gages can be used instead of the Carlson type for the determination of the autogenous shrinkage in high performance concrete. It was carried out measurements of the autogenous shrinkage, for the same concrete mix, using the two types of extensometers. The difference in the means of the autogenous shrinkage results between these two types of extensometers was typically less than 10 × 10−6 m/m, showing that the Self-Temperature-Compensation Gage is an alternative to replace the Carlson type strain gage for the measurement of autogenous shrinkage of concrete.