Effects of shrinkage reducing admixture in shrinkage compensating concrete under non-wet curing conditions

The practice of using expansive agents has been recommended to manufacture shrinkage-compensating concrete provided that an adequate wet curing is carried out. On the other hand, more recently the use of shrinkage reducing admixture (SRA) has been suggested to improve concrete performance in terms of lower risk of cracking related to drying shrinkage. However, neither expansive agent nor SRA, when used separately, can definitively and safely avoid the risk of cracking caused by drying shrinkage in real concrete structures under the practical conditions of curing on many job-sites. This paper shows the advantages of the combined use of SRA and CaO-based expansive agent to produce shrinkage-compensating concrete even in the absence of an adequate wet curing. (c) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.