Shrinkage of concrete usually occur in the cement paste while the aggregate phase resist the shrinkage by stiffness of individual particle and the interaction of the aggregate particles. There are various types of shrinkage that happen in concrete. Those types of shrinkage take place at different time and from different causes. The following four types of shrinkage are well known.
1Chemical shrinkage due to hydration.
2Autogenous shrinkage.
3Drying shrinkage.
4Carbonation Shrinkage.
3.2.1 Mechanisms
-Autogenous shrinkage of cement is influenced by mineral compositions of cement and their hydration ratio.
-C3A and C4AF have a great influence on autogenous shrinkage
-autogenous shrinkage is considered to occur because of capillary pressure produced by surface tension of water in the space of gel, and the decrease of distance between layers.
-autogenous shrinkage can be considered by two mechanisms: hydration of cement and changes in the pore structure of the hardened cement paste.
-Autogenous shrinkage is the macroscopic volume reduction due to chemical shrinkage that happens after the final set of concrete and the volume reduction due to self-desiccation.
-The latter happens due to water consumption of the unhydrated cement the results in reducing humidity in the capillary pores and then self-equilibrating stresses are created by capillary tension in the capillary pore water and compression in the hydrated products.
-Autogenous shrinkage is different from drying shrinkage in the sense that there is no water loss to the environment in the case of autogenous shrinkage. The loss of water happens inside the concrete due to consumption by the unhydrated cement and the still non-reacted cementitious materials.
-Volume reduction happens immediately after the concrete is mixed. The volume reduction will generate stress when the concrete has achieved its final setting time because stress is not generated before the concrete has gained some strength. Autogenous shrinkage is therefore defined as the shrinkage that is measurable after the final setting time of the concrete.
-at present days many kinds of advanced concrete are designed to have lower water-to-binder ratio and sometimes with large paste volume.
-Those examples are high strength concrete and self-compacting concrete. When compared with normal concrete, those types of concrete have smaller, lower amount of and less continuous capillary voids, or in other words, have low permeability.
-Therefore, when water in the capillary voids is consumed in the reaction, a greater stress due to small and discontinuous capillary voids as well as large amount of paste is then produced. As a consequence, autogenous shrinkage in such types of concrete becomes no more ignorable in the design.