E. Holt, M. Leivo / Cement & Concrete Composites 26 (2004 ) 521-530
Fig. 5. Average effect of adding l%, shrinkage reducing admixture (SRA) to high strength concrete on early age drying shrinkage.
Table 2
Setting time of concretes with increasing dosage of superplasticizer,
corresponding to Fig. 4
Superplasticizer dosage (%,) Set time (h:rnin)
0 2:50
0.5 2:50
1.0 3:20
1.5 3:50
This is in agreement with manufacturers' references to SRAs potential to reduce long-term drying shrinkage.
3.2. 2. Autogenous .shrinkage
Material parameters affect early age autogenous shrinkage over a wider range of choices. The main parameter is the amount of water and cement in the mixture, since autogenous shrinkage occurs when there is a lack of water for full cement hydration.
As a review, the long-term autogenous shrinkage will first be described, since it is better understood and documented in practice. Long-term autogenous shrinkage in this paper refers to the deformations occurring after one day. The main material property controlling autogenous shrinkage is the w/c ratio: as the w/c ratio is lowered the autogenous shrinkage increases. This has
been explained by Powers and Brownyard [17] that autogenous shrinkage occurs due to self-desiccation when the w/c ratio is below about 0.42, since all mixing water is consumed at this ratio. This w/c limit can vary slightly, depending on the cement type and if there is an unrestricted supply of water available during curing.
Recently, these guidelines of greater long-term autogenous shrinkage occurring at lower n,/c ratios have been supported by French research [18]. Baroghel-Bouny has shown that with a decreasing w/c ratio the 28-day autogenous shrinkage of cement paste increases, as shown in Fig. 6. Tazawa and Miyazawa [ 9] attribute this to the denser paste microstructure.
In literature the terms "self-desiccation" and "autogenous shrinkage" are often interchanged. Actually these terms should not be confused, since the internal drying or self-desiccation causes the long-term autogenous shrinkage. Even if the relative humidity is 100% there can be autogenous deformations that are not related to self-desiccation, but rather to chemical shrinkage.
Now returning to the occurrence of early age autogenous shrinkage (