State-of-the-art review on plastic cracking of concrete

• Published in: Construction & building materials Vol. 225; pp. 886 - 899
• Main Authors: Kayondo, M., Combrinck, R., Boshoff, W.P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 20.11.2019
• Subjects: Bleeding; Capillary shrinkage; Crack prevention; Evaporation; Fresh concrete; Latest developments; Plastic cracking; Review; Plastic cracking; Crack prevention; Latest developments; Review; Evaporation; Fresh concrete; Bleeding; Capillary shrinkage
• ISSN: 0950-0618; 1879-0526
• DOI: 10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2019.07.197

•State-of-the-art of developments on plastic shrinkage cracking.•Fundamentals of plastic shrinkage cracking.•Modelling of plastic shrinkage cracking.•Latest developments and mitigation approaches. Plastic cracking is probably one of the earliest defects for concrete structures, and is capable of reducing a structure’s durability and service life if not prevented. Over the last 60 years, researchers have attempted to unravel the complex nature of mechanisms leading to plastic cracking of concrete. The main driving mechanisms of plastic cracking have been found to be settlement of solid particles, bleeding, evaporation, capillary action, as well as surface finishing. These, in combination lead to a 3-dimensional volume contraction which if restrained, causes plastic cracking of concrete. Several methods, tests, and models have been developed to enumerate the effect of the respective mechanisms leading to the plastic shrinkage and cracking of concrete. Plastic cracking has thus been uniformly understood to mean both plastic settlement cracking and plastic shrinkage cracking. Several mitigation strategies of plastic cracking have been proposed, such as fogging, using less amount of fines, use of fibers, among others. This state-of-the-art paper traces the extensive development of research on the subject matter, and updates it with what is considered to be state-of-the-art and up-to-date.