Materials and Structures (2012) 45:17051716

DOI 10.1617/s11527-012-9867-5

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Long-term deformations and cracking risk of concrete

with high content of mineral additions
A. Darquennes E. Rozie`re M. I. A. Khokhar
Ph. Turcry A. Loukili F. Grondin

Received: 7 October 2011 / Accepted: 7 May 2012 / Published online: 6 June 2012
RILEM 2012

Abstract This paper presents results from a study on

long-term deformations of concrete with a high
content of mineral additions, such as blast-furnace
slag and fly ash. Autogenous and drying shrinkage
were monitored. The kinetics and magnitude of these
deformations are modified by the type and content of
mineral additions. This behaviour is mainly due to the
slow advancement of their hydration reaction and to
the evolution of their microstructure during the first
days. Mechanical properties were also affected by
mineral additions. All these modifications led to an
increase in cracking susceptibility of concrete mixtures with blast-furnace slag. But their optimisation in
terms of mechanical performance allowed reducing
their cracking risk. An analytical model (Eurocode 2)
was also applied for comparison. The prediction of the
total shrinkage of the studied concrete mixtures was
found to be satisfactory, but the autogenous shrinkage
of concrete mixtures with mineral additions was
significantly underestimated.

A. Darquennes  E. Rozie`re  M. I. A. Khokhar 

A. Loukili (&)  F. Grondin
LUNAM, Research Institute of Civil Engineering and
Mechanics (GeM), UMR CNRS 6183, Ecole Centrale de
Nantes, 1 rue de la Noe, BP 92101, 44321 Nantes Cedex
3, France
e-mail: ahmed.loukili@ec-nantes.fr
Ph. Turcry
Universite de La Rochelle, LEPTIAB, La Rochelle,
France

Keywords Shrinkage  Blast-furnace slag  Fly ash 

Restrained shrinkage  Porosity  Eurocode 2 model

1 Introduction
The clinkerisation of the constituent materials of
cement requires high energy consumption and release
of carbon dioxide. Since the Kyoto Protocol, cement
industries have tended to reduce the greenhouse gas
emissions during cement manufacturing including the
decarbonation of limestone. Replacing cement by
mineral additions is a promising way to reduce the
environmental impact of concrete. Generally, these
mineral additions are fly ash and blast-furnace slag,
which are considered as industrial waste or byproducts. However, some standards [28] put limits
on the use of mineral additions, when they are used
during the concrete mixing.
In the study presented in this paper, mineral
additions were used to partially replace the cement
at higher contents than the maximum ratios given by
the standards. A high rate of substitution of cement is
likely to affect the early age compressive strength. To
tackle this problem, these concrete mixtures with high
rate of mineral additions were optimised using Bolomeys equation. Second-day compressive strength of
10 MPa (at 20 C) was targeted because it allows
rapid removal of formwork [24]. Although this first
approach gave quite satisfactory results from the view
point of mechanical properties, its validation needs to

1706

take into account other properties of cementitious

materials, such as durability and cracking risk.
A first estimation of the cracking risk of concrete
structures due to the restrained shrinkage can be carried
out by monitoring the free deformations due to drying,
thermal and autogenous shrinkage [7, 9]. Several
studies on concrete mixtures with mineral additions
showed that the kinetics and of the deformations are
affected by mineral additions. The cementitious materials with slag generally show a significantly higher
autogenous shrinkage [13, 16, 17, 20] than Portland
cement concrete. But their drying shrinkage is almost
equal to that of concrete made with Portland cement
[33]. Thanks to their low heat of hydration [15], slag
additions also modify the evolution of thermal shrinkage. Some authors [12] found that the addition of fly
ash leads to a decrease in autogenous shrinkage.
However, this observation was partially contradicted.
According to Tangtermsirikul [32], autogenous shrinkage is larger when fly ash with a very much smaller
average particle size than cement was used. Kinetics
and magnitude of drying shrinkage of cementitious
materials containing fly ash also depend on characteristics of fly ash particles [14]. From these different
observations, it is difficult to assess the long-term
behaviour and shrinkage for concrete mixtures with
high contents of blast-furnace slag or fly ash.
This study was performed to evaluate the shrinkage
of concrete with high content of mineral additions in
free and restrained conditions. This last parameter was
determined by means of restrained shrinkage tests
taking into account the evolution of several parameters
affecting the development of stresses in concrete
(shrinkage, tensile strength, stiffness, evolution of
relaxation and degree of restraint). Finally a comparison of the measured shrinkage deformations with the
analytical model from Eurocode 2 is presented.

2 Experimental program
2.1 Materials and mixture proportioning
The studied concrete mixtures were made of crushed
coarse aggregates (10/14 and 6/10 mm) and sea sand
(0/4 mm), Portland cement (CEM I 52.5 N), mineral
additions such as blast-furnace slag and fly ash, and a
polycarboxylate type superplasticizer. Physical properties of cement and mineral additions are detailed in

Materials and Structures (2012) 45:17051716

Table 1. These mineral additions were used at different volume proportions of the binder (b): 50 and 75 %
of blast-furnace slag for 50GGBS, 50GGBSOpt,
75GGBS and 75GGBSOpt respectively and 50 % of
fly ash for 50FA and 50FAOpt (Table 2).
Tests were carried out at 20 C for two different
series of mixtures: non-optimised concrete mixtures
(50GGBS, 75GGBS and 50FA) and optimised concrete
mixtures (50GGBSOpt, 75GGBSOpt and 50FAOpt)
(Table 2). Non-optimised mixtures are characterised by
identical effective water content (Weff), volume of paste
(Vpaste) and granulometric curve. In the case of
optimised mixtures, these parameters were modified to
obtain a compressive strength equal to 10 MPa at 2 days
(Table 3). Therefore, optimised mixtures are characterized by lower w/b and w/c ratios, higher cement content,
lower water content, volume of paste equal or higher
than non-optimised mixtures, and higher superplasticizer content. The details of the mix proportioning
method are given in Khokhar et al. [24].
2.2 Testing procedures
2.2.1 Mechanical properties
Concrete cylinders were cast then stored at 20 C and
95 % relative humidity (RH). They were demoulded
after 23 h and were put into a curing tank maintained at
20 C until the test time. Compressive and tensile
strengths were measured at 2, 7 and 28 days on three
samples. Tensile strength measurements were realized
by means of splitting tests. Dynamic elastic modulus of
concrete specimens was also monitored during 28 days
by means of impulse excitation tests (Grindosonic
device).
2.2.2 Free shrinkage
Free shrinkage measurements were carried out on
cylindrical (11 cm , 22 cm high) and prismatic
specimens (7 9 7 cm, 28 cm high), equipped with
metal studs at each end. The specimen was placed
Table 1 Physical properties of the cementitious materials
Cement CEM I

GGBS

Fly ash

3.11

2.89

2.24

Blaine (m /kg)

340

462

405

Passing 45 lm (%)

95

98

80

Density (g/cm )
2

Materials and Structures (2012) 45:17051716

1707

Table 2 Compositions of the optimised and non-optimised mixtures

CEM I

50GGBS

50GGBS
Opt

75GGBS

75GGBS
Opt

50FA

50FA
Opt

Cement

303

146

163

72

103

126

174

Blast-furnace slag

146

163

215

309

Fly ash

126

174

Composition (kg/m3)

Waeff

182

182

171

182

170

182

170

Sand 0/4

855

855

855

855

817

855

824

Gravel 6/10

211

211

211

211

202

211

203

Gravel 10/14

875

875

875

875

836

875

843

Superplasticizer

1.6

0.9

2.8

0.8

2.2

0.6

0.62

0.52

0.63

0.41

0.72

0.49

Characteristics
w/bb
w/c

0.6

1.25

1.05

2.54

1.65

1.45

0.98

Vdpaste (l/m3)

279

279

279

280

310

279

304

Vw/Veb

1.87

1.87

1.57

1.87

1.21

1.87

1.26

Weff = wadded ? wsuperplasticizerwabsorbed

w/b = water to binder ratio

w/c = water to cement ratio

by aggregates

Vpaste = volume of paste

Vw/Vb = volume of Weff to volume of binder ratio

Table 3 Compressive (fc) and tensile (ft) strength, cracking risk (CR), age of cracking from ring test and calculated relaxation for the
optimised and non-optimised mixtures
fc (MPa)
2 days
CEM I
50GGBS
50GGBSOpt
75GGBS
75GGBSOpt
50FA
50FAOpt

ft (MPa)
7 days

28 days

2 days

CR
7 days

28 days

Age of cracking
(days)

Relaxation at
7 days (%)

29.6

38.9

49.1

2.3

3.0

3.9

3.4

60

8.0

16.0

33.1

1.0

2.1

3.5

3.2

40

73

12.5

21.9

39.1

1.6

2.5

3.9

3.2

55

3.3

16.0

33.4

0.8

1.5

3.1

3.6

13

57

12.0

36.5

53.8

1.5

2.9

4.2

3.2

29

41

4.8

7.1

11.7

0.7

1.1

1.7

4.4

69

12.5

19.0

30.0

1.4

2.0

3.1

3.4

34

The bold values indicate the high risk of cracking

vertically between a steel ball and a linear variable

differential transformer (LVDT) sensor. The monitoring of length started 1 day after the concrete mixing
and the specimens were stored in an air conditioned
room at 20 0.5 C and 50 5 % RH. For each
studied mixture, the total and autogenous shrinkage
was measured continuously. For autogenous shrinkage
measurement, the specimen was with two layers of
aluminium tape. To obtain a radial drying, the ends of

specimens used for monitoring the total shrinkage

were also coated. The mass loss of specimens was
monitored automatically on a third specimen from the
same batch.
2.2.3 Restrained shrinkage
The cracking risk was assessed by means of a
restrained shrinkage test: the ring test (Fig. 1). It was

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Materials and Structures (2012) 45:17051716

carried out using a device consisted of a steel ring of

inner radius R0 (85 mm) and outer radius R1
(110 mm), around which concrete was cast as a ring
with an outer radius R2 (180 mm). The internal steel
ring restrains the concrete deformation and the
susceptibility of material to cracking was evaluated
by its cracking age. To accelerate the cracking process
without significantly changing the stress state of
concrete, a 20 mm notch was added to the steel ring
[34]. During the test, the ring deformation was
measured using four strain gauges (Fig. 1). The
deformation of steel ea was deducted from the average
of strains measured through gauges. Based on this
deformation, it is possible to calculate the maximum
tensile stress in concrete rh [22]. This latter is given by
(Eq. 1), where K is a constant based on the elastic
properties (static modulus Ea and Poisson coefficient
ta) of steel and the geometry of the test specimen
(Eq. 2).
rh Kea

K Ea

1 ta

R21
R20

R20


1  ta R21



R20
R21



R21
R22

1

R22
 R21
2

The restrained shrinkage test started at 1 day after

casting concrete around the ring and was performed in
an air conditioned room at 20 0.5 C and 50 5 %
RH. The lateral surface of the concrete ring was
covered with aluminium tape. The upper and lower
faces of the specimen are exposed to drying.
From these experiment results, an estimation of the
relaxation (R) of concrete mixtures can be obtained by
the difference between elastic (rel) and measured
stresses (rmeas) (Eq. 3).
R t

rel t  rmeas t
 100
rel t

Fig. 1 Schematic views of

ring specimenThe
circumferential stress profile
is indicated on the top view
[34]

The elastic stresses (Eq. 4) were defined as the

product of total shrinkage (esh,tot) measured on cylindrical-shape specimen and static elastic modulus
(Estat). This modulus was calculated with the dynamic
modulus (Edyn) and the relation (Eq. 5) given by [25].
rel t Estat t  esh;tot t

Estat t 1:25  Edyn t  19000

However, the drying kinetics of ring and cylindrical-shape specimens is not similar. This difference of
behaviour was taken into account through the shrinkage model used by [1] (Eq. 6). These authors defined
the shrinkage strain (esh,tot) as a function of the drying
time (t) and the ultimate shrinkage strain (esh,?). The
parameter Ns is the time in days to reach half of
ultimate shrinkage. Following [2], this parameter can
be expressed as a function of the drying path length Ld
[10] used in (Eq. 7). The Ld value for the ring test is
equal to 17.5 mm. This value was determined by
means of the experimental shrinkage curves and
(Eq. 6) for the cylindrical-shape specimens. Its value
is equal to 8.8 mm.


t
esh;tot t esh;1
6
t Ns
Ns 20:1 exp0:063 Ld

The ultimate shrinkage value is assumed to be equal

for the ring and cylindrical-shape specimens, only the
drying kinetics is different. From (Eq. 6), shrinkage of
the ring specimen (esh,an) can be expressed as a
function of the experimental shrinkage measured on
the cylindrical-shape specimen (Eq. 8). Finally, the
elastic stresses were calculated with (Eq. 9).


t Ncyl
esh;an t
8
esh;tot t
t Nan

Materials and Structures (2012) 45:17051716

rel t Estat t  esh;an t

1709

2.2.4 Porosity
Capillary porosity and pore size distribution of
concrete were measured using mercury intrusion
porosimetry (MIP), which can detect pores with
diameters ranging from 0.003 to 360 lm. The capillary porosity of material has been considered within
the interval characterized by pore diameters between
0.01 and 5 lm. In these experiments, tests were
performed on samples of mortar extruded from fresh
concrete to limit the influence of the aggregates
porosity on these measurements. The hydration of the
samples was chemically stopped at 1, 2, 7 and 28 days.
Then they were stored in a vacuum oven at 60 C for
24 h.

Fig. 2 Evolution of total (T) and autogenous (A) shrinkage of

the non-optimised mixtures

3 Results and discussion

3.1 Free shrinkage
3.1.1 Effect of substitution of cement by mineral
additions
Figure 2 shows the evolution of total shrinkage of the
non-optimised compositions. The substitution of
cement by 50 % of mineral additions such as blastfurnace slag and fly ash resulted in slower kinetics of
total shrinkage with reference to the mixture containing 100 % Portland cement (CEM I). The long-term
value was particularly lower for concrete mixture with
50 % of fly ash (50FA). The increase in slag addition
from 50 to 75 % increased the long-term value of total
shrinkage and its evolution rate. Excepted during the
first days, 75GGBS showed a shrinkage evolution
similar to CEM I, both in its kinetics as well as in its
long-term value.
To analyse these experimental results, total shrinkage (Fig. 2) can be divided into two parts: autogenous
shrinkage (Fig. 2) and drying shrinkage (Fig. 3).
Drying shrinkage values were obtained by taking
difference between the measured total and autogenous
shrinkage values. This analysis does not take into
account the coupling between autogenous and drying
shrinkage. Although this assumption greatly simplifies
the interpretation of experimental results, it must be
considered carefully because it is rarely verified. In

Fig. 3 Evolution of drying shrinkage of the non-optimised

mixtures

fact, there is an interaction between these two

phenomena [4]. On the one hand, moisture gradient
being the driving parameter of drying shrinkage
depends on the internal relative humidity of the
material and therefore the progress of the hydration
reaction, a parameter for characterizing the evolution
of self-desiccation. On the other hand, the hydration
reactions and autogenous shrinkage are also affected
by the moisture condition of the material.
The difference in behaviour between the mixtures
with 0 and 50 % mineral additions appears to be mainly
due to the evolution of autogenous shrinkage (Fig. 2).
The autogenous shrinkage was very low for 50FA
(\10 lm/m), which can be explained by its high w/c
ratio resulting in coarser porous structure (Fig. 4) and
low capillary depression. The autogenous deformation
of 50GGBS was about half of that of CEM I, but the

1710

Materials and Structures (2012) 45:17051716

Table 4 Penetration threshold at 1, 2, 7 and 28 days

Fig. 4 Evolution of cumulative porosity at 2 and 28 days of the

non-optimised mixtures

evolution of their drying shrinkage (Fig. 3) was quite

similar from the age of 35 days. For 75GGBS, dividing
total shrinkage into autogenous shrinkage (Fig. 2) and
drying shrinkage (Fig. 3) showed that these deformations were also quite close to those of CEM I from 25 to
50 days respectively. Thus, the mixtures CEM I and
75GGBS exhibited similar long-term behaviour. However, the kinetics of deformation differed at early age.
The first reason for this difference in behaviour is due
to the expansion of the cement matrix of 75GGBS
under sealed conditions. Such swelling has been
already observed for concrete with a high content of
slag [16, 17, 31]. This is probably due to the rapid
growth of hydration products at early age and the
crystallization pressure that crystals exert on the pore
walls. The second reason for the difference in behaviour between 75GGBS and CEM I at early age is the
rapid drying kinetics of 75GGBS. This is probably due
to the coarser porosity of 75GGBS with respect to
CEM I during the first 28 days (Fig. 4), making water
diffusion easier through cementitious material. The
results from MIP showed that the threshold value of
penetration of CEM I is actually much lower than that
of 75GGBS during this period (Table 4), which
confirms that the porosity of 75GGBS is coarser.

Pore size diameter (lm)

1 day

2 days

7 days

28 days

CEM I

1.04

0.44

0.18

0.10

50GGBS

1.31

1.05

0.67

0.18

50GGBSOpt
75GGBS

0.68
2.53

1.05
2.08

0.28
1.06

0.10
0.18

75GGBSOpt

1.33

1.60

0.23

0.05

50FA

3.08

1.60

0.83

0.43

of concrete mixtures generated an increase in total

shrinkage due to a high increase in autogenous
shrinkage (Fig. 5). The optimisation of these mixtures
also led to higher autogenous shrinkage kinetics and
an increase in its long-term value. These modifications
are due to a lower w/b ratio [21] and a higher paste
volume for the optimised mixtures. The evolution of
their drying shrinkage was slower and their long-term
value was lower. This difference in behaviour can
probably be explained firstly by the finer porosity of
the optimised mixtures that reduced the diffusion of
moisture through the cement matrix (Table 4). Secondly, drying shrinkage was also reduced because the
content of free water was not available enough to
accelerate the hydration reaction (low w/b). But the
optimisation of 50FA did not affect significantly the
evolution of its drying shrinkage. Only the value of its
autogenous deformation and its mass loss during the
first phase seemed to be affected.

3.1.2 Effect of concrete mixture optimisation

The compositions with mineral additions were optimised to reach a compressive strength of 10 MPa at
2 days [24]. This optimisation brought some modifications: a lower water content, w/b ratio and w/c ratio,
and a higher cement content, paste volume and
superplasticizer content (Table 2). The optimisation

Fig. 5 Total, drying and autogenous shrinkage at 28 days

Materials and Structures (2012) 45:17051716

1711

intrinsic property of concrete material. So, its evolution would be difficult to predict by means of model
such as Eurocode 2. However, the total shrinkage of
the optimised mixtures with 50 % of mineral additions
was always lower than that of CEM I for both types of
specimen shape. These results showed that dealing
with the total shrinkage of the studied concrete
mixtures the differences of behaviour were kept no
matter the shape of specimens.
3.1.3 Relation between drying shrinkage and mass
loss

Fig. 6 Evolution of drying shrinkage for cylinder-shape

(C) and prismatic (P) concrete specimens

However, the evolution of total shrinkage depends

on the specimen geometry [3, 9]. Additional tests were
performed on prismatic concrete specimens
(7 9 7 cm, 28 cm high). Note that only the mixtures
CEM I, 50GGBSOpt and 50FAOpt were tested. These
results showed that drying shrinkage of the prismatic
specimens evolved faster during the first days (Fig. 6).
This behaviour can be explained by the specimen
effective cross-section thickness defined as twice the
volume-to-surface ratio (=2 V/S). It also represents
the average drying path length. It is equal to
5.53.5 cm for the cylinder-shape and prismatic
concrete specimens respectively. So, it is easier for
water to escape from the prismatic specimens. This
behaviour was confirmed by the larger value of mass
loss percent for these specimens at 28 days (Table 5).
Thus, shrinkage decreases as the volume-to-surface
ratio increases. Similar results were given by [5].
Based on the fitted curves of shrinkage evolution, this
observation seems not valid at long term. The value of
drying shrinkage at long term would be lower for the
prismatic concrete specimens (Fig. 6). These observations show that the drying deformation is not an

The relation between drying shrinkage and mass loss

(Fig. 7) allows us to define two phases. The first phase
occurs during the first days following the desiccation
of specimens. It is characterized by a high mass loss
for a small variation in drying shrinkage. Two theories
were proposed in the literature to explain this
phenomenon. According to some authors [6, 8, 18],
microcracks are formed on the surface of specimen
during this early period. This results in relaxation of
due to shrinkage. In this first theory, microcracking is
due to a high gradient of stresses imposed on the
specimen. This phenomenon is due to the strong
gradient of humidity between ambient atmosphere and
specimen core. Following the second theory [23], the
evaporation of water close to the surface of the
specimen is mainly responsible for the mass loss
during the first days after the end of curing. This water
evaporation does not affect significantly the shrinkage
evolution.
Mineral additions led to an increase in the mass loss
during the first phase. But the mixtures optimisation

Table 5 Mass loss values at 28 days for prismatic and cylindrical-shape specimens
Mass loss (%)

Prismatic
specimen

Cylinder-shape
specimen

CEM I

1.9

1.3

50GGBSOpt

2.8

2.2

50FAOpt

3.5

2.8

Fig. 7 Evolution of drying shrinkage as a function of mass loss

1712

Materials and Structures (2012) 45:17051716

The second phase of drying shrinkage is characterized by a linear relationship between the deformation
and the mass loss. The slope of this curve is the
parameter CF called hydrous compressibility factor
[19] (Table 6). Mineral additions also affected the
second phase leading to an increase in the value of the
parameter CF, especially for the concrete mixtures
with blast-furnace slag. Thus, the drying shrinkage in
the second phase was slightly accelerated for 50 and
75GGBS. This observation was confirmed by the
curves of drying shrinkage (Fig. 3).
3.2 Cracking risk
Fig. 8 Evolution of tensile strength at 7 days and capillary
porosity at 1 day as function of mass loss at the end of the first
phase of drying shrinkage

allowed decreasing this value. To explain this behaviour, the parameters affecting this first phase (the
tensile strength at 7 days and the capillary porosity at
1 day) were normed in comparison to their maximal
value and expressed as a function of the mass loss at
the end of this phase. Figure 8 showed that the tensile
strength decreased whereas the capillary porosity
increased with mass loss. The low tensile strength of
the concrete mixtures with mineral additions (Table 3)
this first phase by making the cracking on the
specimen surface easier. This microcraking is likely
to relax the stresses due to shrinkage (see first theory).
The concrete behaviour during the first phase (a low
shrinkage value and a high percent of mass loss) was
also emphasized for the mixtures with mineral additions by their larger capillary porosity at 1 day (age of
exposure to drying). This last point was also confirmed
by the results of Bissonnette et al. [9]. They found that
the initial weight loss comes mainly from the decrease
in water content of large capillary pores (according to
the second theory). These first results did not show
clearly which parameters affected mainly the evolution of this first phase. So, the decrease in mass loss
percent during the first phase for the optimised
mixtures may be related to both their larger tensile
strength and their lower capillary porosity at 1 day.

From the evolution of total shrinkage (Fig. 2),

dynamic modulus (Fig. 9) and tensile strength
(Table 3), a first estimate of the cracking risk (CR)
of the studied materials can be given (Table 3).This is
based on the dynamic modulus (Edyn,28j) and shrinkage
(e28j) at 28 days, and the value of tensile strength
(ft,28j) at 28 days (Eq. 10). The values of CR indicate
that the mixtures 75GGBS and 50FA would show the
highest risk of cracking viewing their low tensile
strength, and the higher increase of shrinkage and
stiffness at early age. But estimating the risk of
cracking also requires taking into account the relaxation of stresses and the degree of restraint. These
parameters can be taken into account by means of
restrained shrinkage tests such as the ring test.
Edyn;28j e28j
10
ft;28j
The tests (Fig. 10) showed that the stresses developed most rapidly for CEM I which was characterized
by the highest stress value (2.9 MPa). However, no
visible cracks appeared in this material. It is probably
explained by its higher tensile strength (Table 3).
Although the stresses relaxation of concrete mixtures
with blast-furnace slag (50 and 75GGBS) was larger
(Table 3), cracks were observed on the rings. The
increase of stresses in these mixtures was similar until
cracking which happened at 13 and 40 days respectively. Following the first estimation of the cracking
risk (CR) (Table 3), 50FA showed the highest risk of

CR

Table 6 Hydrous compressibility factor CF (coefficient from linear part of curves giving drying shrinkage versus mass loss)

CF

CEM I

50GGBS

50GGBSOpt

75GGBS

75GGBSOpt

50FA

50FAOpt

350

485

525

490

520

400

390

Materials and Structures (2012) 45:17051716

Fig. 9 Evolution of dynamic modulus

cracking. But no cracks were observed on the concrete

ring. Moreover, stresses evolved slowly for 50FA and
their maximal value was low (0.7 MPa). This behaviour can be partly explained by its higher relaxation
(Table 3) and its slow shrinkage evolution (Fig. 2).
This last observation shows that the measurement of
mechanical properties and shrinkage evolution is not
sufficient to determine the cracking susceptibility of a
concrete mixture. Moreover, shrinkage amplitude of
studied mixtures is lightly underestimated because
deformation is only measured from 1 day. Hence, we
can conclude that the concrete mixtures with blastfurnace slag would show a higher risk of cracking.
To estimate the effect of optimisation on the
cracking risk of concrete with mineral additions,
restrained shrinkage tests were also performed on
these concrete mixtures. Despite a decrease in relaxation and an increase in its total shrinkage and its
maximal stress, no cracks were observed for 50GGBSOpt. Therefore, the optimised mixture with 50 % slag
(50GGBSOpt) has a lower risk of cracking than
50GGBS. Cracks appeared in the specimen of
75GGBSOpt despite a decrease in its total shrinkage
and an increase in its tensile strength. This behaviour
can be related to its lower relaxation of stresses
(Table 3) and its higher stiffness (Fig. 9), but also to
its large paste volume [29, 30]. However, these cracks
appeared at a later age (29 days) and at a higher stress
(2.5 MPa). Finally, the optimisation of mixtures
seems to reduce the cracking risk for the substitution
of ground granulated blast furnace slag for up to 50 %
of the cement. The use of concrete mixture with a
higher substitution of slag requires an adequate curing
[29].

1713

Fig. 10 Evolution of stresses in restrained concrete for the nonoptimised mixtures

3.3 Comparison between experimental data

and analytical modelEC2
The experimental shrinkage results were compared
with the analytical model from the Eurocode 2 model
(CEB-90) [11] to test its efficacy to predict deformations of concrete mixtures with a high content of
mineral additions. The value of some CEB-90s
parameters (ax) depends on the type of cement. In
this study, the binder of mixtures with mineral
additions was considered as slowly hardening cement
according to Muller and Kvitsel [27]. Globally,
kinetics of the deformations evolution predicted by
this model was acceptable (Fig. 11), although the
increase was too fast at early age. Moreover, the CEB90 model showed a good estimation of the amplitude
of total shrinkage at long-term (Fig. 12). The prediction error was lower or equal to 30 %. A similar value
of prediction accuracy was also obtained by Muller
et al. [26].
However the drying and autogenous shrinkage were
clearly over- and underestimated at 90 days respectively. The underestimation of autogenous deformation is directly related to the model parameters: the
compressive strength at 28 days and the class of
cement hardening ax. These parameters are not
adequate to predict the effects of the pozzolanic
reaction on the evolution of autogenous deformation.
The addition of blast-furnace slag or fly ash actually
slowed down the advancement of the hydration
reaction at early age. It affected concrete porosity
(Fig. 4) and thus capillary depression, the cause of the
autogenous deformation. Parameters related to the

1714

Fig. 11 Evolution of autogenous and total shrinkage for

50GGBS based on experimental measurements and modelling
with CEB-90

microstructure and the concrete compositions should

be added to improve the modelling of autogenous
shrinkage of concrete with mineral additions. For the
drying shrinkage modelling, several parameters
affecting this phenomenon were added in the CEB90: ambient relative humidity, cross section and
perimeter of the member in contact with the atmosphere. The slight overestimation of drying shrinkage
is probably related to the fact that autogenous and
drying shrinkages are independent entities in the CEB90 model. The effect of autogenous deformation on
the moisture state of specimen was not taken into
account in the modelling of drying shrinkage.

Materials and Structures (2012) 45:17051716

Fig. 12 Comparison of the experimental and calculated value

of autogenous, total and drying shrinkages at 90 days

4 Conclusions
In this study, an experimental program was designed
to investigate the effect of high substitution of
Portland cement by mineral additions on the longterm deformations and the cracking risk of concrete.
The studied mixtures were designed following two
approachesan elementary substitution of cement by
mineral additions and an optimisation of these mixtures in terms of their early age mechanical performance. Different observations were underlined:

Addition of minerals modifies the autogenous and

drying shrinkage kinetics as well as their longterm value. For a content of mineral additions
inferior or equal to 50 % of the volume

proportions of the binder, the evolution rate and

the amplitude at long term of the total shrinkage
are lower than that of a Portland cement concrete.
Over 50 % of mineral additions, the total shrinkage is similar. These different behaviours are
principally due to the porous structure of cementitious materials.
Although the non-optimised mixtures with blastfurnace slag are characterized by a large relaxation
capacity, they show a higher cracking risk than
Portland cement concrete or mixtures with fly ash.
The optimisation of these mixtures reduces the
cracking risk of mixtures with 50 % of blastfurnace slag. No cracks are observed for the
mixtures with fly ash thanks to the slow and low
development of stresses inside cementitous material under restraint conditions.
Drying shrinkage is affected by the specimen
shape and size. This behaviour would be principally due to the difference in the mass loss kinetics
and the microcracking on the specimen surface.
These experimental results showed that the relative behaviour of the drying shrinkage of the
studied concrete mixtures is not modified no
matter the size and shape of specimen used.
However, additional tests are necessary to confirm
this observation.
The Eurocode 2 model allows determining the
shrinkage kinetics of concrete mixtures with
mineral additions. The model predictions of total
shrinkage are in a reasonably good agreement with

Materials and Structures (2012) 45:17051716

measured deformations. However, the autogenous

shrinkage is clearly underestimated for the concrete mixtures with blast-furnace slag because the
effects of the pozzolanic reaction on its evolution
are not taken into account with this model.
Acknowledgments This study has been performed in the
project EcoBeton which is supported by the French National
Research Agency (ANRAgence Nationale pour la Recherche)
under grant number ANR-06-RGCU-006. The assistance of the
project partners is gratefully acknowledged.

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