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h i g h l i g h t s
Cracking of concrete due to early-age shrinkage leads to several problems.
Fibers in concrete try to reduce the propagation of the early-age-shrinkage cracking.
The effectiveness in preventing the growth of the cracks is analyzed using image analysis.
The addition of PP and PE macro fibers exhibits the best performance.
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history:
Received 28 October 2014
Received in revised form 31 August 2015
Accepted 15 October 2015
Keywords:
Early-age shrinkage
Concrete structures
Macro fibers
Micro fibers
Image analysis
ImageJ
a b s t r a c t
Cracking of concrete due to early-age shrinkage is a common problem that generally leads to several
problems experienced by concrete structures, mainly influencing and reducing durability and lifetime.
This is of particular relevance in the case of slabs type structures such as pavements, industrial floors,
bridge decks, tunnel lining and precast elements, that show much larger surface areas compared with
other kinds of structural components, such as beams and columns. In addition, the cracks allow water
and other chemical agents to penetrate into concrete and get in touch with steel reinforcements, leading
to reinforcement corrosion, even to breakage. Consequently, curing is the unique traditional method to
avoid such problems. However, in certain applications, due to the severe environmental conditions
and/or due to the actual dimensions of structural elements, curing does not fit the purpose in the prevention of cracks. For the above said, fibers have been incorporated in concrete to reduce and/or prevent the
propagation of the early-age-shrinkage cracking. In fact, the utilization of fibers has increased progressively over the past years in structural applications. The present paper focuses on early-age shrinkage
cracking with a special attention given to new concretes aiming at reduced shrinkage phenomena
through the addition of different types of macro fibers within the cement matrix. In order to estimate
the effectiveness in preventing the growth of the cracks, an easy methodology, based on image analysis
(IA), has been developed. The results show different considerations regarding distinct materials: in terms
of the effectiveness of fibers, the addition of polypropylene and polyethylene macro fibers exhibits the
best performance and leads to a certain delay and a wide decreasing in cracking formation. The use of
fibers has been found to be very effective in the width reduction of the cracks and, even if not so significantly, in the length reduction.
2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Once it has stiffened, set and hardened, concrete is a relatively
brittle material that shrinks over time. Cracking will occur if the
concrete is restrained against the movement that results from this
tensile strength, several other factors can also influence the potential for early-age cracking including the magnitude and rate of
shrinkage, degree of restraint, stress relaxation, time-dependent
material property development, geometry of the structure, and
fracture resistance of the material [4]. Early age shrinkage can
result in cracks that form in the same manner as at later ages. Even
if the early resulting cracks are internal and microscopic, further
shrinkage at later ages may merely open the existing cracks and
cause problems [5]. Early-age cracking is problematic because it
is responsible for the increase in the water penetration, de-icing
chemicals, sulfates, and other corrosive or aggressive agents into
concrete, thereby accelerating the corrosion of reinforcing steel.
The structures that are particularly sensitive to the above
described phenomenon include pavements, industrial floors,
bridge decks, walls and tunnel linings. The above is due to the
low volume/surface ratio and to the fact that such structures typically have a high rate of shrinkage and, moreover, they are frequently exposed to high concentrations of corrosive agents. Due
to the high impact associated with the repair of a damaged structure, significant interest exists for the improvement of the durability of the structural elements given that concrete restoration is
expensive. The durability improving has typically resulted in the
use of higher strength and lower permeability that may be more
susceptible to early-age cracking, especially if they are insufficiently cured. In order to better control cracking and its adverse
effects on durability, specifications have been developed to limit
early-age cracking [6,7]. Accordingly, there is an urgent need to
reduce the extent of this cracking and thereby prevent the premature deterioration. Although the concrete materials, concrete mix
designs, design specifications and construction technologies have
changed a lot over the years, shrinkage cracking still remains a significant problem and is prevalent in construction. For the above
reason, concrete structures are equipped with secondary reinforcement, for example welded wire mesh [8] or closely spaced bars of
small diameter [9], that allow the width containment of the cracks
associated with the shock loadings and the contractions produced
by the thermo-hygrometric phenomena. Unfortunately, no beneficial effect exists against cracks that occur during the first hours
after the casting of the structures without formwork, when the
tensile strength of the concrete is still very low. A more effective
way to limit the phenomenon of the first cracking is the introduction in concrete mixture of discrete fibers of different types, usually
length from 10 to 80 mm and having diameter from some tens of
lm to about 1 mm [10]. The fibers dispersed in the cement matrix
implement a three-dimensional reinforcement and are able to
absorb tensile stresses acting in any direction. Moreover, by ensuring stitching of lesions, the fibers prevent their rapid spread and
especially limit their opening [11]. Therefore, fiber-reinforced concrete shows also a higher capacity to dissipate energy associated to
impulsive loads (e.g. shocks and impacts) if compared to a traditional conglomerate. For the above said, the study of shrinkage is
important to avoid surface cracking that leads to a durability concern and not only to prevent esthetic defects of concrete. Moreover,
the complex phenomena involved in the early-age shrinkage of
concrete makes difficult a clear cracking potential quantification,
given that concrete has not yet hardened completely when such
a phenomenon occurs, being the concrete itself in the state of transition during the first 24 h. Diverse methods for the simulation and
study of cracking induced by plastic shrinkage have been proposed,
such as for example plates and rings, in order to test the effectiveness of the introduction of fibers in concrete in order to limit
shrinkage phenomena. Banthia and Gupta have worked on the
effect of diameter, length and geometry of polypropylene fibers
on the plastic shrinkage in concrete, by prismatic specimens consisting of a substrate with protuberances and an overlay on top.
[12,13]. Lura et al. used a stress riser to create cracking in slabs
597
PP for polypropylene,
PVA for polyvinyl alcohol,
PET for polyethylene,
STL for steel.
Shape, size, physical and mechanical properties of the fibers are shown in Tables
2 and 3 respectively.
2.2. Experimental procedure
The test has been performed in a short period of time (24 h) in order to focus on
the cracking related solely to the early age shrinkage. A method that ensures effective constraints and a considerable loss of moisture has been selected. The experimental setup consisted of plate-type specimens held by anchors. In this way it has
been possible to simulate the real conditions of an in situ manufactured pavement
bound to the base and sides. The upper surface of each slab, after casting and finishing, has been exposed to adverse environmental conditions such as: low relative
humidity (50 2%), high wind speed (2.2 m/s) and a temperature between
25 1 C in order to assure shrinkage and consequent cracking phenomena. The
above cited conditions have been obtained in a small environment that will be iden-
598
Table 1
Composition of the reference concrete.
Cement (kg/m3)
350
193
Sand (kg/m3)
Gravel (kg/m3)
Dosage (lt/m3)
Cement (%)
P0350
Media
Coarse
P1 8/12
P2 12/20
2.67
0.76
300
260
380
570
400
Table 2
Composition and size of the fibers.
Identification
Composition
PP2
PP3
PP4
PVA
PET
STL
Polypropylene
Ondulated smooth
Straight embossed
Straight smooth
Straight smooth
Straight embossed
Hooked ended
Polyvinyl alcohol
Polyethylene
Steel (low carbon)
width
width
width
width
The above grouping of cracks has been made in order to facilitate, during the
next phase, the identification of those cracks showing the same range of widths.
The next step of the process considers the acquisition and processing of the images
using three different software such as: AutoStitch [22], ImageJ [23] and Adobe Photoshop (Adobe Systems Incorporated, San Jose, California, USA). AutoStitch creates a
panorama from single images. This software needs images acquired by the same
camera, same exposure and showing enough overlapping area in order to perform
a proper stitching. The panorama created by AutoStitch is the composition of the
original images with the correction of any defect. The next phase consists in the
removing of the unnecessary parts of the view image in order to focus the pattern
of the crack and start the following analysis using ImageJ. ImageJ developed at the
National Institutes of Health (USA) is a Java-based public domain image processing
and analysis program, which is freely available, open source, multithreaded, and
platform independent that can be utilized to develop user-coded plugins to suit
the specific requirements of any conceived application. In the present paper using
ImageJ it is possible to analyze the acquired images and evaluate the size of the
crack assigning measures, based on the pixels, in order to identify the different colors on the sample that point out cracks showing different sizes. In this way it is possible to obtain a path for each range of the width of the cracks. Thereafter the
different paths have been connected in order to achieve a unique frame (pattern).
At the end of such a process, the software is able to provide the following four
key parameters in order to characterize the crack from a dimensional point of view:
Table 3
Properties of the fibers (UTS stands for ultimate tensile strength and E modulus of
elasticity).
ID
PP2
PP3
PP4
PVA
PET
STL
Length
(mm)
Equivalent
diameter (mm)
Aspect
ratio (l/d)
q (g/
cm3)
UTS
(MPa)
E
(MPa)
40
54
40
50
52
50
0.75
0.82
0.43
0.66
0.64
1.05
53.3
66
93
76
81
48
0.91
0.91
0.92
1.3
1.35
7.8
338
481
620
800
238
1000
4.8
5.4
9.5
29
5.5
210
Fig. 2. Pre-classification of the cracks using colored paths (a) and range crack width
(b).
area of the crack relating to the extent of the flat surface comprised within the
perimeter of the crack;
length of the crack intended as the sum of the distances between end-to-end of
each crack;
width of the crack defined as the distance from one side to the other of the
crack, measured among all those cracks that form the pattern of the crack.
A width of the crack equal or greater than 0.3 mm is considered particularly
dangerous in terms of durability of the material [24]. For the above said the following three parameters have been identified in order to establish the effectiveness of
the added fibers in concrete.
ARR (Area Reduction Rate): is accountable to the effectiveness of the fibers
added to the mixture in order to reduce the cracked area due to the shrinkage
599
90
Table 4
Workability of the reference concrete (PLN) and FRC.
Fibers (% by volume)
Slump (mm)
PLN
PP2
PP3
PP4
PVA
PET
STL
0
0.3
0.3
0.3
0.3
0.3
0.3
228
212
215
170
170
215
210
0
7
6
34
14
6
8
(S5)
(S5)
(S5)
(S4)
(S4)
(S5)
(S4)
R = 0,9144
80
ARR%
Type
70
60
50
40
40
60
80
aspect ratio
100
120
R = 0.8637
WRR
100
80
60
40
20
40
Cracked area of FRC
100
Cracked area of reference concrete
60
LRR%
Cracked length of FRC
RR 1
100
Cracked length of reference concrete
40
30
20
- WRR (Width Reduction Rate): showing the effectiveness of the fibers added to
the mixture in order to reduce the width of the crack
10
FRC crack width > 0:3
100
Reference concrete crack width > 0:3
The width of the crack has been calculated as the ratio between the area of the
single crack and its length.
R2 = 0,7531
50
- LRR (Length Reduction Rate): denotes the effectiveness of the fibers added to
the mixture in order to reduce the length of the crack
WRR 1
100
ARR 1
60
80
aspect ratio
40
60
80
aspect ratio
100
Table 5
Aspect ratio, number of the fibers and performances of FRC.
Identification
PLN
PP2
PP3
PP4
PVA
PET
STL
Fibers/m3
ARR (%)
LRR (%)
WRR (%)
53.3
66
93
76
81
48
1.55E + 05
1.00E + 05
4.75E + 05
1.46E + 05
1.55E + 05
0.56E + 04
1670
758
574
305
532
308
767
55
66
82
68
82
54
3375
2880
2051
1668
2221
1675
2452
15
39
51
34
50
27
1196
344
174
0
157
0
381
38
58
100
57
100
30
600
120
ARR%
100
LRR%
WRR%
80
60
40
20
0
PP2
PP3
PP4
PVA
PET
STL
Table 6
Correlation between aspect ratio and ARR.
Identification
ARR (%)
PP4
PET
PVA
PP3
PP2
STL
93
81
76
66
53
48
82
82
68
66
55
54
Table 7
Correlation between aspect ratio and WRR.
Identification
WRR (%)
PP4
PET
PVA
PP3
PP2
STL
93
81
76
66
53
48
100
100
57
53
38
30
Table 8
Correlation between aspect ratio and LRR.
Identification
LRR (%)
PP4
PET
PVA
PP3
PP2
STL
93
81
76
66
53
48
51
50
34
39
15
27
Table 9
Parameters characterizing the fibers.
to quantify such a parameter, the weight loss of the pan was measured every hour. The cumulative evaporation is described in Fig. 3.
As can be observed the evaporation trend shows a higher rate
overture followed by a lower rate, approximately after 6 h. The
change of the slope corresponds to the decrease of the bleeding
water conveyed into the surface by the capillary action. Furthermore, it can be observed that the curves show comparable trends
after 67 h, when the evaporation rate seems to take similar values
independently of the type and quantity of fibers added to the plain
concrete. It can be noticed that the first cracking phenomena
appear at about two or three hours after the beginning of the test,
with the exception of the concretes that contains respectively the
microfibers PP4 and PET. On these samples, the cracking phenomena start after 4 and 5 h respectively. As expected, the reference
concrete (PLN) shows cracking before any of the proposed FRC that
gets benefit from the presence of fibers. All the samples exhibit
regular and wide cracks at a very early age. The further cracks
spread in irregular patterns and are thinner. It can be noticed that
usually the cracks appear in the middle of the sample and develop
toward the outer edges. In addition the cracking pattern show an
high degree of symmetry confirming the effectiveness of the
two-dimensional restraint that induces a stress concentration
exactly in the center of the slab. As previously stated, three parameters can be used in order to summarize the performance of the
FRC with respect to the reference concrete. The above cited parameters show the effectiveness of the fibers in the reduction of the
area, length and width of the cracks in FRC. All the obtained results
are shown in Table 5.
The same results, related to each of the above cited three
parameters, are showed separately in the following figures. As
can be seen the aspect ratio plays a basic role in terms of the performances of the FRC (Figs. 46).
As can be noticed, the reduction of the ARR affects the width of
the crack. As a matter of fact the percentage of cracks wider than
0.3 mm it is strongly reduced. Two kinds of fibers (PP4 and PET)
completely prevent the development of cracks wider than
0.3 mm. The correlation between the length of the crack and the
aspect ratio of the fibers it is more complicated. In fact, as can be
observed, the higher the aspect ratio does not correspond to a
lower extension of the cracks. The number of the added fibers
seems to be a less significant parameter as long as the difference
stays under a certain level, as this is the case, as showed in
Fig. 7. As a matter of fact, it can be observed marked differences
in ARR or WRR in those concretes that contain the same number
of fibers (PP2PET) but different aspect ratio, or in reverse the
same values of ARR and WRR corresponding to a different number
of added fibers (PP4PET or PP2-STL) but about the same aspect
ratio (Tables 69).
4. Conclusions
Identification
Fibers/m3
PP2
PP3
PP4
PVA
PET
STL
1.55E + 05
1.00E + 05
4.75E + 05
1.46E + 05
1.55E + 05
0.56E + 04
Acknowledgements
A special tribute to the company BASF Italy SpA for the given
contribution in the development and execution of the present
research.
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