Abstract
Making reliable cracking risk assessment involves experimental testing and advanced modeling of the time- and temperature-dependent behavior of the properties, the restraint conditions of the structure, and the external environmental conditions. Mineral additives such as silica fume (SF), blast furnace slag (BFS), and fly ash (FA) have been used extensively in production of high performance concrete in the last decades. The mineral additives such as fly ash and blast furnace slag will reduce the hydration heat during the hardening phase, and the mineral additives also have significant influence on the development of mechanic and viscoelastic properties at early age. Within the NOR-CRACK project, extensive test programs were performed to investigate the material properties related to cracking risk of early-age concrete containing mineral additives. In current paper, the advanced modeling of the heat of hydration, volume changes (autogenous shrinkage and thermal dilation) during hardening, the development of mechanical properties (E-modulus, compressive strength, and tensile strength), and creep/relaxation properties are discussed. Tests were performed in “temperature stress testing machine” (TSTM) to measure the restraint stress, and well-documented material models were verified by performing 1-D analysis of restraint stress development in the TSTM (Ji, 2008).