Early-age cracking continues to be a significant problem for new concrete construction. Two of the major contributors to such cracking are the heat released by cement hydration during the first few days of curing and the autogenous shrinkage that often occurs during the same timeframe. In this paper, three potential alternatives for reducing these contributions by modifying the concrete mixture...

In the twenty-first century, most high-performance concretes, and many other ordinary concretes, are now based on blended cements that contain silica fume, slag, and/or fly ash additions. Because the chemical shrinkage accompanying the pozzolanic and hydraulic reactions of these mineral admixtures is generally much greater than that accompanying conventional portland cement hydration, these ble...

The high cement content of high-performance concrete (HPC) results in improved strength, but also large shrinkage. substitution natural aggregates (NA) with recycled (RA) notably affects these properties conventional concrete. This study intends to analyse the effect RA and their maturity (time elapsed between casting crushing parent from which are obtained) on HPC. To this end, five mixes were...

In response to the continuously advancing concrete technology, a new prediction model for creep and shrinkage is presented. This model, named B4, builds on the theoretically justified model B3, which is a RILEM recommendation from 1996. Improvements to the model allow for enhanced multi-decade prediction, distinguish between the drying and autogenous shrinkage, and introduce new equations and p...

Autogenous shrinkage of wellbore cement widely impairs zonal isolation. MgO-based expansion additives (CEAs) can mitigate this shrinkage, or even impart net expansion, by creating porosity through displacive crystal growth-processes. However, both MgO hydration and autogenous behaviour depend strongly on stress state. Evaluation CEA performance in cements therefore requires testing under elevat...

High performance concrete (HPC) requires a low water-to-cementitious materials mass ratio (w/cm), often with the inclusion of supplemental cementitious materials such as silica fume in the mixture, thus necessitating the use of a superplasticizer. Because of the low w/cm and rapid reaction at early ages, proper curing from the earliest time possible is very essential in HPC. Internal curing has...

This study examines the hydration–mechanical–autogenous shrinkage–durability–sustainability properties of ternary composites with limestone filler (LF) and ground-granulated blast furnace slag (BFS). Four mixtures were prepared a water/binder ratio 0.3 different replacement ratios varying from 0 to 45%. Multiple experimental studies performed at various ages. The results are summarized as follo...