An improvement of the test method to measure autogenous shirinkage in concrete at early-age

Abstract

An improvement of the test method is proposed to more accurately measure early-age autogenous shrinkage in concrete particularly within first 24 hours after casting. Experiments were conducted considering existing and improved method. In improved method, hydration temperature was artificially controlled to prevent thermal deformations. Test results indicate that the autogenous shrinkage calculated by existing approach is underestimated which might be due to the wrong assumption of considering the thermal dilation coefficient to be constant (equal to 10 x $10^{-6}/^{\circ}C$) at early-age. We recommend that the proposed method should be adopted to better assess precise value of autogenous shrinkage or an appropriate method of determining the time-evolution of thermal dilation coefficient be considered.