EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF TEMPERATURE RISE AND EARLY-AGE THERMAL CRACK CONTROL IN CONCRETE

Ruthwik Chala, Mourougane R

Abstract: The issues related to thermal cracking of concrete at early age are discussed in this paper. The main cause of these cracks are inhomogeneous volume changes associated with thermal and moisture gradients occurring in concrete structures which affects the durability of structure, serviceability or its appearance. The experimental study was carried out on six cast in-place reinforced concrete slabs and three reinforced thick concrete walls of different section thicknesses to determine the peak temperature rise in the structure, which was determined using temperature sensor (Thermocouple). Results obtained in the study indicated different peak rise in temperature for different section thickness, it was also studied that slabs and walls of same section thickness, produced nearly same peak temperature rise in the structure. The paper also discusses crack control measure by provision of distribution reinforcement to prevent early age thermal cracking based on the thermal datas obtained in the field. The design is carried out as per the available provisions in Indian code for the field datas, and the design results are compared with the available datas in Indian codes..

Keywords: Mass Concrete, Peak rise in temperature, Thermal gradient, Section thickness, Thermal cracks

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15623/ijret.2015.0407032