Improving self-compacting concrete shrinkage prediction by integrating novel experiments, simulations and experimental databases

Motivation

Self-compacting concrete (SCC) is prone to higher creep and shrinkage due to the inherently large content of cement paste. Current prediction models fail to describe shrinkage of SCC accurately. This is due to the combination of several factors: i) substantial replacement of Portland cement by supplementary cementitious materials which modify microstructure, ii) wide range of admissible water-to-cement ratios which alter the proportion between autogenous and drying shrinkage, iii) sharp transition of physical properties from conventional concrete to SCC, iv) compressive strength is less determining parameter, and v) absence of experimental data for calibration.
In this project, standard and non-conventional experiments are supplemented with mathematical modeling to i) formulate a shrinkage prediction model for SCC, ii) explore approaches for significant reduction of the time needed for estimating the ultimate shrinkage, and iii) investigate the behavior at the meso-scale to assess the extent of internal damage and check representativeness at specimen surface.

Project objectives

• Experimental data and prediction model for shrinkage of self-compacting concrete.
• Computational-experimental approach for identification of the ultimate shrinkage from short-term measurements.
• Experiments and modeling to determine unrestrained shrinkage and the impact of the surface layer.

Project outputs

Journal papers

Conference papers

Experimental database