PREDICTION OF SHRINKAGE STRESS IN CONCRETE OVERLAYS

Stefanus A. KRISTIAWAN Senior Lecturer, Dept. of Civil Engineering, University of Sebelas Maret, Indonesia. ABSTRACT: A form of restraint exists when two materials with different shrinkage properties are combined (composite) as in the case of concrete overlay. As a result of this restraint tensile stress will be induced in the overlay leading to cracking if this tensile stress reaches tensile capacity of concrete overlay. This research is aimed to measure all of parameters involve in the development of restrained shrinkage stress and using the results to predict the magnitude of restrained shrinkage stress occurring in concrete overlay. The time at which restrained shrinkage stresses reach tensile capacity as confirmed by the occurrence of cracking in overlays is used to validate the prediction. Keywords: concrete overlay, modulus of elasticity, shrinkage stress, tensile creep, tensile capacity 1. INTRODUCTION Under drying environment concrete will shrink. This phenomenon of shrinkage in concrete could be related to the loss of water in the capillary pores. On drying water in the large capillaries of concrete is removed first by evaporation mechanism. As drying progress, the water from its finer capillaries then starts to evaporate causing development of menisci which induces attraction forces (capillaries forces). These forces are thought to be responsible for shrinking of concrete. Several authors [1, 2] have shown the linearity of drying shrinkage-loss of water relationship. In actual structure, movement of concrete due to shrinkage may be restrained in a variety of ways. The restraint could be in the forms of external, rigid, or part-rigid, adjacent member or by foundations. The restraint can also be provided by differential shrinkage between the repair material and the existing structure in a concrete patch repair system or new and old structures in concrete overlays. Any form of restraint to shrinkage of concrete will induce tensile stress. The stress will develop in time as shrinkage continues. The stress development can be dangerous when it reaches the ultimate tensile strength of concrete since at this level of stress development concrete will crack. However, under a tensile stress which develops with time concrete also exhibits creep which will relieve stress, and this in turn reduces the possibility of cracking. Thus, tensile creep and drying shrinkage of concrete are key factors to assess the performance of concrete to resist cracking due to restrained shrinkage as well as tensile strength. Other factors that should be considered are modulus of elasticity of concrete and degree of restraint [3, 4]. As far as cracking is concerned, low modulus of elasticity is favourable as it produces low stress development at a given shrinkage strain. Low degree of restraint to shrinkage is also desirable since only a fraction of that shrinkage will induce stress. In the case of concrete overlay, a form of restraint as mentioned earlier is provided by differential shrinkage 776 between concrete base and overlay. The element with lower shrinkage characteristic (concrete base) restrains the movement of the element with higher shrinkage (overlays). Hence, a tensile stress is developed in overlay and may reach the ultimate tensile strength of that element to cause cracking. The degree of restraint that exists in concrete overlay depend on the magnitude of differential shrinkage between the two layer. A higher magnitude of differential shrinkage should result in a higher degree of restraint and vice versa. Other factor that affects the degree of restraint is the type of bond characteristic between the old concrete and overlay. In the practice of concrete overlay, three types of bond exist, namely fully bonded, partially bonded and unbonded overlay [5]. Theoretically, fully bonded overlay will provide full restraint to the movement of overlay due to shrinkage. As a result, a higher restrained shrinkage stress is induced and overlay will be more vulnerable to shrinkage cracking compared to partially bonded overlay. Meanwhile, unbonded concrete overlay should provide no restraint at all because the overlay could shrink freely. The occurrences of shrinkage cracking in overlays have been recognized by several authors [4-7]. It is intended that the application of overlays on existing concrete pavement would restore load bearing capacity, improve skid resistance and ride quality and so the service life of concrete pavement is expected to be extended. However, the occurrence of early shrinkage cracking has been thought to be one of the factors responsible for failure of overlays in increasing performance and extending service life [7]. The persistence problem of shrinkage cracking in concrete overlays could be traced from the fact that in the current design of overlays there is no consideration to calculate stress due to restrained shrinkage. The procedure of overlay design only concerns with the required thickness of overlay that will be expected to resist the stress due to traffic load. The problem of shrinkage cracking could be reduced if the design procedure of concrete overlay incorporates requirements for checking shrinkage stress. Such

procedure may be implemented only if there is a reliable model for predicting shrinkage stress. The model should be developed to include all parameters affecting cracking performance of overlays due to restrained shrinkage. 2. METHODS OF PREDICTION SHRINKAGE STRESS

Various methods to predict stress development based on known varying strains has been proposed by many investigators and described in reference [8]. One of the methods is derived by considering two consecutive finite intervals of time t1 and t2, in which the mean stresses are 1 and 2, respectively, the change in total deformation during the time interval t2 is:

g) The movement of concrete edges are free Application of the method to compute shrinkage stresses in various types of overlays will give the same values since the method neglected the fact that actual bond between overlays and concrete base may vary. For fully bonded overlays, there should be a considerable degree of restraint to the shrinkage of overlays. On the other hand, partially bonded overlays will only restrain a fraction of that shrinkage. Improvement of Silfwerbrands method is proposed by Kristiawan et al. [9] to account for variation in degree of restraint provided by different type of overlays. The method is as follows:

( t ) E(*t ) sh (t )

m (1 ) { m (1 ) 3 2 (3 ) 4 4 m ( m 1 ) { m (1 )

(4) (5) (6)

2 1 ( 2 1 ) sh E (t ) E (t )

(1)

E*

E1 (1 )

where , sh and E(t) are creep coefficient, shrinkage and modulus of elasticity, respectively. To calculate the stress from a known history of the strain, Eq.1 is rearranged so that:

1 sh E (t ) 1 E (t )

(2)

The value of represent a fraction of sh and its magnitude depends on the degree of restraint (see Figure 1). If symbolizes a fraction of sh which corresponds to the value of , then Eq.2 may be written as follows:

where sh, E* and are shrinkage of overlay, modified elastic modulus of overlay, degree of restraint and factor to account for type of bonded overlay, respectively. The value of is found to be 2.35 and 1.80 for fully and partially bonded overlay, respectively [9]. The degree of restraint is affected by m and which are, respectively, ratio of elastic modulus of concrete base E2 to E*and ratio of depth of overlay d to total thickness of overlay plus concrete base h. Creep coefficient is used to obtain E* from elastic modulus of overlay E1. Free shrinkage of overlay

( 1) sh 1 E (t )

1 E (t )

sh

(3) (a) unbonded concrete overlay Partially restrained shrinkage of overlay

For fully bonded overlay, a value of should be equal to 0, while for partially bonded overlay is within 0 and 1. In practice, it is difficult to have concrete overlay with fully bonded characteristic. The common practice to achieve fully bonded overlay by surface treatment may only produce slightly lower than that of partially bonded overlay. Other method of shrinkage stress prediction with particular reference to concrete overlay has been proposed by Silfwerbrand [4]. The method is based on the following assumptions: a) Concrete in base and overlay are linear elastic materials b) Poissons ratio is set to zero c) Plane sections remain plane after bending (Bernoullis hypothesis) d) The shrinkage of overlay is sh throughout e) The shrinkage of the base is neglected f) A good bond between overlay and base provides complete interaction 777

= sh

(b) Partially bonded concrete overlay

=0

(c) Fully bonded concrete overlay Figure 1. Schematic representation of various degree of restraint in concrete overlays

3. LABORATORY INVESTIGATIONS Validation of methods to predict restrained shrinkage stress development in overlays were accomplished through observation of cracks in samples of concrete overlays. For this purpose, two slabs having size of 2 x 2 m and a depth of 150 mm were cast. Concrete used to produce the slabs were proportioned to obtained compressive strength of 25 MPa. In this research the slabs were used as representation of concrete pavements that eventually be overlaid. Overlays were carried out after the slabs were left to dry at laboratory environment (temperature of 27-32oC and relative humidity of 65-72%) for period of 7 months. This period of drying is assumed to be enough to cause the rate of shrinkage of concrete base becomes negligible. Overlays were accomplished by covering up the slabs with 30 mm thickness of mortar having proportion of 1: 2.5 by weight of cement: fine aggregate, respectively and w/c ratio of 0.56. This proportion of mortar gives comparable strength to that of concrete base. Two type of concrete overlays are made i.e. fully bonded and partially bonded overlay. Both types of overlay were produced by following the practice of making concrete overlay in the field of concrete pavement overlay. For fully bonded overlay, mortar was spread over rough surface of slab that had been prepared to attain good bond between concrete base and overlay. To obtain rough surface on concrete base, the following procedure was accomplised: firstly, surface of the slab was hammered manually until mortar were partially removed leaving the surface of concrete slab with exposed aggregates. After that the surface of slab was cleaned from any debris and ready to be overlaid. Meanwhile, to obtain partially bonded concrete overlay, the slab was directly overlaid by mortar with no surface preparation. After application of overlays, they were continuously monitored to identify the cracks. The time when cracks occurred were noted. It was found that cracks occurred after 7 and 10 days of drying for fully and partially bonded overlay, respectively. It is expected that crack occured earlier in fully bonded overlay than that in partially bonded overlay since the former provides higher degree of restraint leading to higher induced tensile stress.The time of overlays to crack due to restrained shrinkage are comparable to those noticed by Wiegrink et al. [3] when they observed restrained shrinkage cracking of high strength and normal strength concrete which occured at 6 and 10 days, respectively. The development and evaluation of the appropriate models for shrinkage stress prediction were executed in this research by measuring all parameters that affect the development of shrinkage stress in overlays. The first two important parameters measured are shrinkage and creep. It is noted that since the creep that relieves the development of restrained shrinkage stress is a tensile in nature, so the stress that would be applied in the measurement of creep must be tensile stress. Shrinkage and tensile creep of overlays were measured on similar specimens i.e. prisms with dimensions of 100 x 100 x 500 mm. Three specimens were prepared 778

for each measurements of shrinkage and tensile creep. Those specimens for shrinkage measurement were left unloaded and those for tensile creep measurement were loaded. Strain gauges were employed to detect the change in length of the specimens both on loaded and unloaded specimens. The level of loading stress for tensile creep measurement equals to 30% of tensile strength. Arrangements of loading were similar to those of flexural tests (modulus of rupture) as seen in Figure 2. The magnitude of shrinkage was directly obtained from the reading of strain gauges attached on unloaded specimens using strain indicator while the magnitude of tensile creep was obtained by deduction of total strain observed on loaded specimen with shrinkage strain observed on unloaded specimen. Shrinkage and tensile creep were measured up to 28 days of drying and the results are given in Figures 3-4. Equations for compute shrinkage and creep coefficient as seen in the figure were determined based on ACI 209R-92 recommendation using short-term data (28 days measurements). Other parameters that had been measured in this research include development of tensile strength and elastic modulus in tension up to 28 days. Tensile strengths were determined according to BS1881: Part118 on prisms of 100 x 100 x 500 mm. Measurements of tensile strengths were carried out at the age of 1, 3, 7, 14, 21 and 28 days. On loading of specimens during tensile strength tests, the strains on the tensile side of prisms were also measured using strain gauges. The stresses and the corresponding strains were then plotted as for example given in Figure 5. Modulus of elasticity of overlays were then determined from the gradient of stresses and strains diagrams. The results of tensile strength and elastic modulus over time are shown in Figures 6 and 7, respectively. P= load of 30% tensile strength P/2

d P/2

sampel d = 100 mm d

Strain gauge roller d Strain indicator 3d

Figure 2. Arrangement of tensile creep test

0.000000 -0.000100
sh (t )

6
Tensile Strength (MPa)

10

15

20

25

30

5 4 3 2 1 0 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 y = 0.3511Ln(x) + 3.1627

Measured Shrinkage -0.000200 -0.000300 -0.000400 -0.000500 -0.000600 Time t since drying (days) Predicted Shrinkage

Shrinkage,

Age of Overlay (days)

Figure 3. Shrinkage of overlay

Figure 6. Tensile strength of overlay over time

30000
Elastic Modulus (MPa)

(t )

0.9 0.8

25000 20000 15000 10000 5000 0 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 y = 2804.5Ln(x) + 16418

Creep Coefficient,

0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0 0 5 10 15 20 Time t since drying (days) 25 30

Measured Creep Coefficient Predicted Creep Coefficient

Age of Overlay (days)

Figure 7. Elastic modulus of overlay over time Figure 4. Creep coefficient of overlay 4. RESULTS OF SHRINKAGE STRESS PREDICTION ON CONCRETE OVERLAYS

4 3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 0 0.00005 0.0001 0.00015 0.0002 0.00025 Strain

Figure 5. Stress and strain obtained during flexural tensile strength tests.

Eq. 3 was employed to calculate restrained shrinkage stresses both on fully bonded and partially bonded overlays over time. Input parameters to compute shrinkage stress such as shrinkage, tensile creep and modulus of elasticity are deduced from Figures 3-4 and 7. Eq. 3 requires the stress to be determined at finite interval of time. Therefore, the magnitude of shrinkage, tensile creep and modulus of elasticity at this finite interval of time has to be determined first. For the current research, time interval of 8 hours is chosen. After all of these input parameters are obtained at interval time of 8 hours, they are then put in Eq.3 to determine shrinkage stresses development up to times when cracking occurs. The results of prediction of restrained shrinkage stresses are given in Figure 9. The prediction is validated using observations of crack on overlays which show that the times when cracking occurred in fully bonded and partially bonded overlay were on 7 and 10 days, respectively. These times of cracking suggest that after these periods of drying, the 779

Stress (MPa)

restrained shrinkage stresses must attain tensile capacity of overlays as seen in Figure 9. These can be achieved when the value of in Eq. 3 equal to 0.515 and 0.582 for fully bonded and partially bonded overlays, respectively. The fact that value of does not equivalent to 0 for fully bonded overlay indicates that this type of overlay could not be achieved by such method of surface preparation before application of overlay.
4,50 4,00 3,50 3,00 2,50 2,00 1,50 1,00 0,50 0,00 0 2 4 6 8 10 Time since drying (days) 12 14 Tensile Strength Fully Bonded Overlay Partially Bonded Overlay

Figure 9. Restrained shrinkage stresses development in overlays as predicted using Eq.3

4,50 4,00
Shrinkage Stress (MPa)

3,50 3,00 2,50 2,00 1,50 1,00 0,50 0,00 0 2 4 6 8 Time (days) 10 12 14 ft (Tensile Strength) (Partially Bonded Overlay) (Fully Bonded Overlay)

restrained shrinkage stress on difference type of overlays that the existing method can not do. Comparing Figure 9 and 10, it can be said that the shrinkage stresses development calculated based on Eq.3 are slightly difference in trend to those obtained from Eq.4. The former shows an increase in shrinkage stresses at slightly diminishing rates while the latter shows an increase in shrinkage stresses at almost constant rates. Application of Eq.3 and Eq.4 in the design procedure of concrete overlay to prevent its tendency to crack may require the following steps. First, particular mix proportion is chosen to meet the required strength at least is similar to the existing concrete base. Secondly, thickness of overlay is determined using usual design procedure to meet the required capacity to withstand service load. Finally, the shrinkage stress is calculated using either Eq.3 or Eq.4 and determine whether the particular overlay will be crack or not. It is noted that to be able to use either Eq.3 or Eq. 4, measurements of all parameters that affect shrinkage stress have to be carried out. If it is likely that calculation of shrinkage stress show the overlay will crack, actions should be taken to resolve the matter. These may include one or combination of the following: use of expansive cement to balance the shrinkage of overlay, use of shrinkage reducing admixture to lower magnitude of shrinkage, use of fiber to both reduce shrinkage and increase tensile capacity of overlay, use of polymer modified mortar to obtain flexible mortar that will adjust the change in length due to shrinkage, extent of curing period to obtain hardened properties of overlay that will be beneficial in resisting shrinkage stress, etc. 5. CONCLUDING REMARKS Methods to predict restrained shrinkage stresses on fully bonded and partially bonded overlays have been evaluated based on observation of cracks on corresponding samples of overlays. The methods (Eq. 3 and Eq.4) may be used to estimate the tendency of concrete overlays to crack. ACKNOWLEDGMENT Financial support from the Ministry of Research and Technology, Indonesia through its Incentive Research Program for the year of 2008 is gratefully acknowledged. REFERENCES 1. Almudaiheem, JA and Hansen, W, Effect of specimens size and shape on drying shrinkage of concrete, ACI Materials Journal, Vol. 84 No. 2, Mar-Apr 1987, pp 130-135. 2. Hindy, EE, Miao, B, Chaallal, O, Aitcin, PC, Drying shrinkage of ready-mixed high performance concrete, ACI Materials Journal, May-June 1994, pp 300-305. 3. Wiegrink, K, Marikunte, S and Shah, SP, 780

Figure 10. Restrained shrinkage stresses development in overlays as predicted using Eq.4 Eq.4 has also been applied to predict the shrinkage stresses development in overlays using the same input parameters as those used by Eq.3 [9]. For the particular overlays as given in this research, with value of equals to 2.35 and 1.80 will produce shrinkage stresses reaching the tensile capacity of concrete overlays at 7 and 10 days, respectively (see Figure 10). It means that Eq.4 may be used to predict shrinkage stresses for fully bonded and partially bonded overlay if value of equals to 2.35 and 1.80 are applied, respectively. It has been shown that both Eq.3 and Eq.4 could be applied to estimate the shrinkage stresses development in concrete overlays. These two methods of shrinkage stress prediction can accommodate for estimating

Restrained shrinkage stress (MPa)

4.

5.

6.

7.

8. 9.

Shrinkage Cracking of High-Strength Concrete, ACI Materials Journal, Sept-Oct 1996, pp 409-415. Silfwerbrand, J, Differential Shrinkage in Normal and High Strength Concrete Overlays, Nordic Concrete Research, Publication No. 19, 1997, pp 55-68. Hall, KD. & Banihatti, N, Structural Design of Portland Cement Concrete Overlays for Pavement, Research Report MBTC-1052. Dept of Civil Engineering, University of Arkansas, 2005. Brown, MD. Smith, CA. Seller, JG. Folliard, KJ. & Breen, JE, Use of Alternatives Materials to Reduce Shrinkage Cracking in Bridge Decks, ACI Materials Journal, Vol. 104 (6), Nov-Dec 2007 pp 629-637. Schlorholtz, S , Determine Initial Cause for Current Premature Portland Cement Concrete Pavement Deterioration, Final Research Report. Dept of Civil and Construction Engineering, IOWA State University, 2000. Neville, AM, Dilger, WH and Brooks, JJ, Creep of Plain and Structural Concrete, Construction Press, 1982, pp 208. Kristiawan, SA, Mahmudah, AMH and Sunarmasto, Cracking Resistance of Concrete Overlays as Predicted from the Development of Shrinkage Stress, In Proceeding of 3rd International Conference on Concrete Repair, 29 June-3 July 2009, Padua, Italia: (in Press)

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