Prediction of self-compacting concrete plastic cracking using maturity method

As the rate of water loss from fresh concrete increases, plastic shrinkage occurs, and concrete tendsto crack. The rate of water loss depends on time, temperature, and humidity. These parameters areeffective factors in concrete maturity. Considering the commonality of effective factors, it seems thatconcrete maturity can be used to predict concrete cracking. In this paper, we tried to investigate therelationship of cracking with time and temperature conditions of self-compacting concrete based on thematurity test. Using the maturity method to predict the cracking of fresh concrete can be considered as anew tool to control the quality of concrete. We investigated the relationship between maturity andcracking in ۶ concrete mix designs based on laboratory tests. The linear relationship between maturity andcracking has the best fit to the results. The results also show that the maturity test can be considered as auseful test for predicting concrete cracking as well as compressive strength.

Keywords:

cement hydration , concrete temperature , concrete slab , plastic shrinkage , Nurse-Saul maturity