A thermo-hygro-mechanical model for concrete shrinkage: preliminary study

Abstract

The concrete shrinkage is a common effect of the concrete material behavior during concrete strengthening. The shrinkage is usually a function of the particular concrete material features, its quality, curing process, structural element size, and thermal-hydraulic boundary conditions during the working stress life-time conditions. Typically, grid-geometry steel bars with reinforcement function (rebar) are placed close to the concrete contour surface (coating spacing) to avoid the undesired shrinkage cracks with consequent material section loss. In addition to the solution through classical steel-grid rebar, there are other alternatives considering new materials and methodologies during concrete casting which are still under development (as the use of master fibers is) and may be also appropriate to avoid concrete shrinkage cracking with reducing material and installation costs.