Construction and Building Materials 101 (2015) 596601

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Construction and Building Materials

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat

Evaluation of the early-age-shrinkage of Fiber Reinforced Concrete (FRC)

using image analysis methods
Alida Mazzoli , Saveria Monosi, Eleonora Stella Plescia
Department of Sciences and Engineering of Matter, Environment and Urban Planning (SIMAU), Universit Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy

h i g h l i g h t s

Cracking of concrete due to early-age shrinkage leads to several problems.

Fibers in concrete try to reduce the propagation of the early-age-shrinkage cracking.

The effectiveness in preventing the growth of the cracks is analyzed using image analysis.

The addition of PP and PE macro fibers exhibits the best performance.

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 28 October 2014
Received in revised form 31 August 2015
Accepted 15 October 2015

Keywords:
Early-age shrinkage
Concrete structures
Macro fibers
Micro fibers
Image analysis
ImageJ

a b s t r a c t
Cracking of concrete due to early-age shrinkage is a common problem that generally leads to several
problems experienced by concrete structures, mainly influencing and reducing durability and lifetime.
This is of particular relevance in the case of slabs type structures such as pavements, industrial floors,
bridge decks, tunnel lining and precast elements, that show much larger surface areas compared with
other kinds of structural components, such as beams and columns. In addition, the cracks allow water
and other chemical agents to penetrate into concrete and get in touch with steel reinforcements, leading
to reinforcement corrosion, even to breakage. Consequently, curing is the unique traditional method to
avoid such problems. However, in certain applications, due to the severe environmental conditions
and/or due to the actual dimensions of structural elements, curing does not fit the purpose in the prevention of cracks. For the above said, fibers have been incorporated in concrete to reduce and/or prevent the
propagation of the early-age-shrinkage cracking. In fact, the utilization of fibers has increased progressively over the past years in structural applications. The present paper focuses on early-age shrinkage
cracking with a special attention given to new concretes aiming at reduced shrinkage phenomena
through the addition of different types of macro fibers within the cement matrix. In order to estimate
the effectiveness in preventing the growth of the cracks, an easy methodology, based on image analysis
(IA), has been developed. The results show different considerations regarding distinct materials: in terms
of the effectiveness of fibers, the addition of polypropylene and polyethylene macro fibers exhibits the
best performance and leads to a certain delay and a wide decreasing in cracking formation. The use of
fibers has been found to be very effective in the width reduction of the cracks and, even if not so significantly, in the length reduction.
2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Once it has stiffened, set and hardened, concrete is a relatively
brittle material that shrinks over time. Cracking will occur if the
concrete is restrained against the movement that results from this

Corresponding author at: Department of Sciences and Engineering of Matter,

Environment and Urban Planning (SIMAU), Faculty of Engineering, Universit
Politecnica delle Marche, Via Brecce Bianche, 60131 Ancona, Italy.
E-mail address: a.mazzoli@univpm.it (A. Mazzoli).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2015.10.090
0950-0618/ 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

shrinkage. While long-term (drying) shrinkage has been the focus

of diverse researchers [13], recent studies have shown that the
early loss of moisture from fresh concrete can produce large tensile
stresses in the concrete at a very early age, leading to early-age
shrinkage cracking. Early-age cracking can occur when volumetric
changes caused by temperature reduction, chemical reaction, and
moisture loss are prevented. The prevention of volume reduction
results in the development of tensile stress in the concrete. If these
tensile stresses exceed the tensile strength of the concrete, a visible
crack can be expected to occur. In addition to free shrinkage and

A. Mazzoli et al. / Construction and Building Materials 101 (2015) 596601

tensile strength, several other factors can also influence the potential for early-age cracking including the magnitude and rate of
shrinkage, degree of restraint, stress relaxation, time-dependent
material property development, geometry of the structure, and
fracture resistance of the material [4]. Early age shrinkage can
result in cracks that form in the same manner as at later ages. Even
if the early resulting cracks are internal and microscopic, further
shrinkage at later ages may merely open the existing cracks and
cause problems [5]. Early-age cracking is problematic because it
is responsible for the increase in the water penetration, de-icing
chemicals, sulfates, and other corrosive or aggressive agents into
concrete, thereby accelerating the corrosion of reinforcing steel.
The structures that are particularly sensitive to the above
described phenomenon include pavements, industrial floors,
bridge decks, walls and tunnel linings. The above is due to the
low volume/surface ratio and to the fact that such structures typically have a high rate of shrinkage and, moreover, they are frequently exposed to high concentrations of corrosive agents. Due
to the high impact associated with the repair of a damaged structure, significant interest exists for the improvement of the durability of the structural elements given that concrete restoration is
expensive. The durability improving has typically resulted in the
use of higher strength and lower permeability that may be more
susceptible to early-age cracking, especially if they are insufficiently cured. In order to better control cracking and its adverse
effects on durability, specifications have been developed to limit
early-age cracking [6,7]. Accordingly, there is an urgent need to
reduce the extent of this cracking and thereby prevent the premature deterioration. Although the concrete materials, concrete mix
designs, design specifications and construction technologies have
changed a lot over the years, shrinkage cracking still remains a significant problem and is prevalent in construction. For the above
reason, concrete structures are equipped with secondary reinforcement, for example welded wire mesh [8] or closely spaced bars of
small diameter [9], that allow the width containment of the cracks
associated with the shock loadings and the contractions produced
by the thermo-hygrometric phenomena. Unfortunately, no beneficial effect exists against cracks that occur during the first hours
after the casting of the structures without formwork, when the
tensile strength of the concrete is still very low. A more effective
way to limit the phenomenon of the first cracking is the introduction in concrete mixture of discrete fibers of different types, usually
length from 10 to 80 mm and having diameter from some tens of
lm to about 1 mm [10]. The fibers dispersed in the cement matrix
implement a three-dimensional reinforcement and are able to
absorb tensile stresses acting in any direction. Moreover, by ensuring stitching of lesions, the fibers prevent their rapid spread and
especially limit their opening [11]. Therefore, fiber-reinforced concrete shows also a higher capacity to dissipate energy associated to
impulsive loads (e.g. shocks and impacts) if compared to a traditional conglomerate. For the above said, the study of shrinkage is
important to avoid surface cracking that leads to a durability concern and not only to prevent esthetic defects of concrete. Moreover,
the complex phenomena involved in the early-age shrinkage of
concrete makes difficult a clear cracking potential quantification,
given that concrete has not yet hardened completely when such
a phenomenon occurs, being the concrete itself in the state of transition during the first 24 h. Diverse methods for the simulation and
study of cracking induced by plastic shrinkage have been proposed,
such as for example plates and rings, in order to test the effectiveness of the introduction of fibers in concrete in order to limit
shrinkage phenomena. Banthia and Gupta have worked on the
effect of diameter, length and geometry of polypropylene fibers
on the plastic shrinkage in concrete, by prismatic specimens consisting of a substrate with protuberances and an overlay on top.
[12,13]. Lura et al. used a stress riser to create cracking in slabs

597

by means of a steel insert plate [14]. Such a testing method

adopted, several years ago as ASTM standard (ASTM C 1579: Standard Test Method for Evaluating Plastic Shrinkage Cracking of Restrained Fiber Reinforced Concrete using a Steel Form Insert). These
different test techniques produce cracks of different width and pattern that cannot be comparable. In fact, the reduction of the uncertainty associated with the prediction of mechanical performance
and mass transport, requires a more reliable approach in order to
quantify the physical aspects of the developing cracks. For the
above reason the purpose of the present paper was to investigate
the effectiveness of different types of macro fibers, against the
development of cracks in concrete, during the first 24 h, that is to
say during the plastic shrinkage, the autogenous shrinkage and
the first drying shrinkage. As a matter of fact the present paper
focuses on early-age shrinkage cracking with a special attention
given to new concretes aiming at reduced shrinkage phenomena
through the addition of different types of macro and micro fibers
within the cement matrix. In order to estimate the effectiveness
in preventing the growth of the cracks, an easy methodology, based
on image analysis (IA), has been developed. The proposed method
is helpful in the objective comparison between different materials.
In fact, most of the techniques used to estimate the shrinkage
cracking patterns are subjective and labor-intensive given that
they are based on visual and manual measurement with a consequent low precision of the results.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Mix design
The used mix design was the same in all the Fiber Reinforced Concrete (FRC)
mixtures. In particular, watercement ratio (0.5) and aggregatecement ratio
(5.5) have been maintained constant. The only variables were the type and quantity
(as percentage to volume) of the fibers added to the basic concrete mixture. In this
way, any difference in the performances could be solely due to the fibers contained
in the mixture. The concrete chosen as a reference meets the criteria for strength
and durability widely used in industrial flooring, slabs, precast, tunnel linings and
decks bridge. The used mix design was the most suitable to achieve the required
properties for such a material. Therefore, a reference concrete with a strength class
P30 MPa has been selected. The percentage of fibers was determined according to
the range recommended from suppliers and in accordance with the purposes of the
present research. As known, the dosage of superplasticizer depends on the desired
consistency (fluid-S4 or superfluid-S5) of the final product. In the present paper, the
rate of superplasticizer, in order to ensure a suitable workability to the reference
concrete and to each FRC, has been maintained constant for all the mixtures. The
following table shows the composition of the reference concrete (Table 1).
The manufactured concretes were produced using blended type CEM II/B-LL
32,5R, superplasticizer admixture based on polycarboxylate ethers (0.76% by
weight of cement), gravel (Dmax = 16 mm), gravel (Dmax = 8 mm) and sand
(Dmax = 4 mm).
The fibers, consisting of different materials, have been selected and added to the
mixture at dosage of 0.3% by the volume. For a quick classification of the specimens,
the following acronyms have been used:

PP for polypropylene,
PVA for polyvinyl alcohol,
PET for polyethylene,
STL for steel.

Shape, size, physical and mechanical properties of the fibers are shown in Tables
2 and 3 respectively.
2.2. Experimental procedure
The test has been performed in a short period of time (24 h) in order to focus on
the cracking related solely to the early age shrinkage. A method that ensures effective constraints and a considerable loss of moisture has been selected. The experimental setup consisted of plate-type specimens held by anchors. In this way it has
been possible to simulate the real conditions of an in situ manufactured pavement
bound to the base and sides. The upper surface of each slab, after casting and finishing, has been exposed to adverse environmental conditions such as: low relative
humidity (50 2%), high wind speed (2.2 m/s) and a temperature between
25 1 C in order to assure shrinkage and consequent cracking phenomena. The
above cited conditions have been obtained in a small environment that will be iden-

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A. Mazzoli et al. / Construction and Building Materials 101 (2015) 596601

Table 1
Composition of the reference concrete.
Cement (kg/m3)

Mixing water (kg/m3)

350

193

Superplasticizer (Glenium Sky

527)

Sand (kg/m3)

Gravel (kg/m3)

Dosage (lt/m3)

Cement (%)

P0350

Media

Coarse

P1 8/12

P2 12/20

2.67

0.76

300

260

380

570

400

Table 2
Composition and size of the fibers.
Identification

Composition

PP2
PP3
PP4
PVA
PET
STL

Polypropylene

Ondulated smooth
Straight embossed
Straight smooth
Straight smooth
Straight embossed
Hooked ended

Polyvinyl alcohol
Polyethylene
Steel (low carbon)

tified as environmental tunnel. Recently, image analysis has become a powerful

tool that can be used in order to study cementitious materials at different scales
[15] (Fig. 1).
Image analysis has been used in order to better understand the development of
the cracks and the microstructure of the cement-based systems [16,17], determine
the orientation and dispersion of the reinforcing fibers [18] and characterize the
fracture process in concrete [19,20]. Using the above cited technique, diverse sizes
of cracks have been identified, from about 10 lm to several millimeters, depending
on the field of interest [21]. In the present study the detection of cracks and the
evaluation of their size in terms of opening on the surface of the slabs has been carried out 24 2 h after casting. First of all the cracks have been located using a magnifying glass, then measured by an optical hand-held microscope in order to
accurately evaluate their width. A pre-classification of the cracks, according to their
width, has been carried out using different colored paths as shown in Fig. 2. A colored code has been used in order to highlight the width of the crack. In particular
four ranges, showing an increasing level of hazard, have been selected as follows:

width
width
width
width

00.3 mm identified by green color;

0.30.6 mm identified by blue color;
0.61 mm identified by red color;
11.6 mm identified by black color.

The above grouping of cracks has been made in order to facilitate, during the
next phase, the identification of those cracks showing the same range of widths.
The next step of the process considers the acquisition and processing of the images
using three different software such as: AutoStitch [22], ImageJ [23] and Adobe Photoshop (Adobe Systems Incorporated, San Jose, California, USA). AutoStitch creates a
panorama from single images. This software needs images acquired by the same
camera, same exposure and showing enough overlapping area in order to perform
a proper stitching. The panorama created by AutoStitch is the composition of the
original images with the correction of any defect. The next phase consists in the
removing of the unnecessary parts of the view image in order to focus the pattern
of the crack and start the following analysis using ImageJ. ImageJ developed at the
National Institutes of Health (USA) is a Java-based public domain image processing
and analysis program, which is freely available, open source, multithreaded, and
platform independent that can be utilized to develop user-coded plugins to suit
the specific requirements of any conceived application. In the present paper using
ImageJ it is possible to analyze the acquired images and evaluate the size of the
crack assigning measures, based on the pixels, in order to identify the different colors on the sample that point out cracks showing different sizes. In this way it is possible to obtain a path for each range of the width of the cracks. Thereafter the
different paths have been connected in order to achieve a unique frame (pattern).
At the end of such a process, the software is able to provide the following four
key parameters in order to characterize the crack from a dimensional point of view:

Table 3
Properties of the fibers (UTS stands for ultimate tensile strength and E modulus of
elasticity).
ID
PP2
PP3
PP4
PVA
PET
STL

Fig. 1. Set-up to maintain environmental conditions (courtesy BASF Italy SpA).

Length
(mm)

Equivalent
diameter (mm)

Aspect
ratio (l/d)

q (g/
cm3)

UTS
(MPa)

E
(MPa)

40
54
40
50
52
50

0.75
0.82
0.43
0.66
0.64
1.05

53.3
66
93
76
81
48

0.91
0.91
0.92
1.3
1.35
7.8

338
481
620
800
238
1000

4.8
5.4
9.5
29
5.5
210

Fig. 2. Pre-classification of the cracks using colored paths (a) and range crack width
(b).
area of the crack relating to the extent of the flat surface comprised within the
perimeter of the crack;
length of the crack intended as the sum of the distances between end-to-end of
each crack;
width of the crack defined as the distance from one side to the other of the
crack, measured among all those cracks that form the pattern of the crack.
A width of the crack equal or greater than 0.3 mm is considered particularly
dangerous in terms of durability of the material [24]. For the above said the following three parameters have been identified in order to establish the effectiveness of
the added fibers in concrete.
ARR (Area Reduction Rate): is accountable to the effectiveness of the fibers
added to the mixture in order to reduce the cracked area due to the shrinkage

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A. Mazzoli et al. / Construction and Building Materials 101 (2015) 596601

90

Table 4
Workability of the reference concrete (PLN) and FRC.

Fibers (% by volume)

Slump (mm)

Reduction in slump (mm)

PLN
PP2
PP3
PP4
PVA
PET
STL

0
0.3
0.3
0.3
0.3
0.3
0.3

228
212
215
170
170
215
210

0
7
6
34
14
6
8

(S5)
(S5)
(S5)
(S4)
(S4)
(S5)
(S4)

R = 0,9144

80

ARR%

Type

70
60
50
40

40

60
80
aspect ratio

100

Fig. 4. Correlation between aspect ratio and ARR.

120

R = 0.8637

WRR

100
80
60
40
20
40


Cracked area of FRC
 100
Cracked area of reference concrete

60

LRR%


Cracked length of FRC
RR 1 
 100
Cracked length of reference concrete

40
30
20

- WRR (Width Reduction Rate): showing the effectiveness of the fibers added to
the mixture in order to reduce the width of the crack

10


FRC crack width > 0:3
 100
Reference concrete crack width > 0:3

The width of the crack has been calculated as the ratio between the area of the
single crack and its length.

3. Results and discussion

The aim of the present paper is to study mixtures of fiberreinforced concrete showing a suitable class of consistency. The
required values of consistency (UNI EN 206-1: 2006 standard)
should be not lower than S4. In order to achieve such a result the
reference concrete has been realized at a consistency of S5
(slump > 210), given that the addition of fibers generally decreases

R2 = 0,7531

50

- LRR (Length Reduction Rate): denotes the effectiveness of the fibers added to
the mixture in order to reduce the length of the crack


WRR 1 

100

Fig. 5. Correlation between aspect ratio and WRR.

Fig. 3. Cumulative evaporation.


ARR 1 

60
80
aspect ratio

40

60
80
aspect ratio

100

Fig. 6. Correlation between aspect ratio and LRR.

the workability of the mixture. As can be observed in Table 4 the

aspect ratio of the fibers has a remarkable effect on the workability
of the concrete and, consequently, on the maximum quantity of
fibers that can be added. In fact, the higher the aspect ratio, the
worse is the workability of the FRC.
The results concerning the air content are not shown because
they are very similar and, however, all under the 3% in agreement
with the performance requirements for an ordinary concrete. As

Table 5
Aspect ratio, number of the fibers and performances of FRC.
Identification
PLN
PP2
PP3
PP4
PVA
PET
STL

Aspect ratio (l/d)

Fibers/m3

Cracks area (mm2)

ARR (%)

Cracks length (mm)

LRR (%)

Area cracks wide >0.3 mm (mm2)

WRR (%)

53.3
66
93
76
81
48

1.55E + 05
1.00E + 05
4.75E + 05
1.46E + 05
1.55E + 05
0.56E + 04

1670
758
574
305
532
308
767

55
66
82
68
82
54

3375
2880
2051
1668
2221
1675
2452

15
39
51
34
50
27

1196
344
174
0
157
0
381

38
58
100
57
100
30

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A. Mazzoli et al. / Construction and Building Materials 101 (2015) 596601

120
ARR%

100

LRR%
WRR%

80
60
40
20
0

PP2

PP3

PP4

PVA

PET

STL

Fig. 7. Parameters characterizing the fibers.

Table 6
Correlation between aspect ratio and ARR.
Identification

Aspect ratio (l/d)

ARR (%)

PP4
PET
PVA
PP3
PP2
STL

93
81
76
66
53
48

82
82
68
66
55
54

Table 7
Correlation between aspect ratio and WRR.
Identification

Aspect ratio (l/d)

WRR (%)

PP4
PET
PVA
PP3
PP2
STL

93
81
76
66
53
48

100
100
57
53
38
30

Table 8
Correlation between aspect ratio and LRR.
Identification

Aspect ratio (l/d)

LRR (%)

PP4
PET
PVA
PP3
PP2
STL

93
81
76
66
53
48

51
50
34
39
15
27

Table 9
Parameters characterizing the fibers.

to quantify such a parameter, the weight loss of the pan was measured every hour. The cumulative evaporation is described in Fig. 3.
As can be observed the evaporation trend shows a higher rate
overture followed by a lower rate, approximately after 6 h. The
change of the slope corresponds to the decrease of the bleeding
water conveyed into the surface by the capillary action. Furthermore, it can be observed that the curves show comparable trends
after 67 h, when the evaporation rate seems to take similar values
independently of the type and quantity of fibers added to the plain
concrete. It can be noticed that the first cracking phenomena
appear at about two or three hours after the beginning of the test,
with the exception of the concretes that contains respectively the
microfibers PP4 and PET. On these samples, the cracking phenomena start after 4 and 5 h respectively. As expected, the reference
concrete (PLN) shows cracking before any of the proposed FRC that
gets benefit from the presence of fibers. All the samples exhibit
regular and wide cracks at a very early age. The further cracks
spread in irregular patterns and are thinner. It can be noticed that
usually the cracks appear in the middle of the sample and develop
toward the outer edges. In addition the cracking pattern show an
high degree of symmetry confirming the effectiveness of the
two-dimensional restraint that induces a stress concentration
exactly in the center of the slab. As previously stated, three parameters can be used in order to summarize the performance of the
FRC with respect to the reference concrete. The above cited parameters show the effectiveness of the fibers in the reduction of the
area, length and width of the cracks in FRC. All the obtained results
are shown in Table 5.
The same results, related to each of the above cited three
parameters, are showed separately in the following figures. As
can be seen the aspect ratio plays a basic role in terms of the performances of the FRC (Figs. 46).
As can be noticed, the reduction of the ARR affects the width of
the crack. As a matter of fact the percentage of cracks wider than
0.3 mm it is strongly reduced. Two kinds of fibers (PP4 and PET)
completely prevent the development of cracks wider than
0.3 mm. The correlation between the length of the crack and the
aspect ratio of the fibers it is more complicated. In fact, as can be
observed, the higher the aspect ratio does not correspond to a
lower extension of the cracks. The number of the added fibers
seems to be a less significant parameter as long as the difference
stays under a certain level, as this is the case, as showed in
Fig. 7. As a matter of fact, it can be observed marked differences
in ARR or WRR in those concretes that contain the same number
of fibers (PP2PET) but different aspect ratio, or in reverse the
same values of ARR and WRR corresponding to a different number
of added fibers (PP4PET or PP2-STL) but about the same aspect
ratio (Tables 69).
4. Conclusions

Identification

Fibers/m3

PP2
PP3
PP4
PVA
PET
STL

1.55E + 05
1.00E + 05
4.75E + 05
1.46E + 05
1.55E + 05
0.56E + 04

for regard the compressive strength achieved by all the concretes it

is 10 1 MPa at 1 day, 24 1 MPa at 7 days and 37 1 MPa at
28 days. As for regards the evaporation rate of the water, this is
of primary relevance on the shrinkage at early age. For the above
said, the impact of the tunnel environment, on concrete drying,
results to be very important and should be determined. In order

The use of fibers confirmed to be very effective in the width

reduction of the cracks and, even if not so significantly, in the
length reduction.

The addition of polypropylene and polyethylene macro fibers
exhibits the best performance: a certain delay in cracking formation and a wide decreasing were exhibited. In particular
the crack width has never exceeded the threshold value of
0.3 mm.

The most important parameter is confirmed to be the aspect
ratio, assuming that the number of fibers is about of the same
order of magnitude.

The software Image J has proven effective not only in measuring
the width of the cracks, but also the length by following the
path, tight curves and right angles included.

A. Mazzoli et al. / Construction and Building Materials 101 (2015) 596601

Acknowledgements
A special tribute to the company BASF Italy SpA for the given
contribution in the development and execution of the present
research.
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