Shrinkage

Shrinkage in general sense can be described in various

aspects of volume changes in concrete due to loss of
moisture at different stages, due to different reasons.
Shrinkage can be classified in the following way:
(a) Plastic Shrinkage, (b) Drying Shrinkage, (c)
Autogenenes Shrinkage, (d) Carbonation Shrinkage.
(a) Plastic Shrinkage:
 This type of shrinkage happens just after the
concrete is placed in the forms when the concrete is
still in the plastic condition. The reasons for plastic
shrinkage takes place due to loss of water out of
evaporation, absorption of water by the aggregates
or subgrade. Thus loss of water causes reduction in
volume to an extent of 1% of the volume of dry
cement.
 This contraction in plastic strain and is aggravated
due to loss of water by evaporation from the surface
of the concrete, specially under hot climate and high
winds which may cause to surface cracking.
 Plastic shrinkage can be reduced mainly by
preventing the rapid loss of water from surface,
which can be done by covering the surface with
 polyethelene sheeting on finishing operation, by fog
spray to keep the surface moist or by working at
night.
 Plastic shrinkage can also be avoided by re-vibrating
the concrete in a controlled manner. Small quantity
of calcium powder is also effective.
 Expansive cement or shrinkage compensating
cement is very much effective.
b) Drying Shrinkage
 The shrinkage that takes place after the concrete
has set and hardened is called drying shrinkage,
which is happening during first few months.
 Withdrawal of water from concrete stored in
unsaturated air voids causes drying shrinkage.
 Drying shrinkage is an everlasting process as the
gel water is lost progressively over a long time.
Relation between shrinkage and time at different relative
humidity.
 Theoretically during a long time, drying shrinkage
could be of the order of 10,000x10-6 , but values up
to 4000x10-6 has been actually observed.
 Cement paste shrinks more than mortar and mortar
shrinks more than concrete.
 Concrete made with smaller size aggregates shrinks
more than made with bigger size aggregate.
Factors affecting the shrinkage
 Drying condition or relative humidity
 The rate of shrinkage decreases rapidly with time ,
i.e. 14 to 34 % of 20 yrs shrinkage occurs in 2 weeks,
 40 to 80 % of 20 yrs shrinkage in 3 months and 66 to
85% of 20 yrs shrinkage in 1 yr.
 Water-Cement ratio ----Shrinkage increases with the
increase of water cement ratio.
 Cement content----- Shrinkage increases with
increase of cement content , but is inter related with
water-cement ratio (due to the necessity of
maintaining workability.)

 Type of aggregate- The aggregates which exhibit

moisture movement themselves and have low
elastic modulus, cause large shrinkage. A concrete
using sand stone my shrink twice as much as one
using lime stone. Increase of maximum size
aggregate, decreases shrinkage.
 Grading of aggregate do not affects shrinkage
directly, but indirectly it affects as the grading
affects the water cement ratio.
 Harder aggregates with higher modulus of elasticity,
shrink less than that of softer aggregates.
 For harder aggregates, the internal stress developed
and development of micro cracks are also more.
Influence of water-cement ratio and aggregate content
on shrinkage
 The volume fraction of aggregates will have some
influence on total shrinkage. The ratio of shrinkage
of concrete Sc to shrinkage of neat paste Sp,
depends on aggregate content of concrete ‘a’ ,
Sc= Sp(1-a)n, Experimental values of n varies
between 1.2 to 1.7.
 Due to shrinkage, high internal stresses is
developed, cause micro cracks which affects the
integrity, strength and durability of the concrete.
 Rapid hardening cement causes more shrinkage.
 Admixture—Calcium chloride increases shrinkage.
Lime replacement decreases shrinkage.
 Low heat and Portland pazzolana cement can retard
shrinkage more than OPC or rapid hardening
cement.
 Addition of certain amount of lime gives excellent
effect restraining shrinkage. Thus extensibility of
lime mortar is 7 times superior than cement mortar.
 Moisture measurement----Concrete shrinks when
allowed to dry in an air at lower R.H and it swells
when kept at 100 % R.H or placed in water. Like
shrinkage, swelling is also an ever continuing
process. After facing drying shrinkage, the concrete
is stored in water for a prolonged period, the
shrinkage is not recovered fully and thus can be
concluded that drying shrinkage is not fully
reversible one. The irreversible part of shrinkage is
generally between 0.3 to 0.6 of the drying shrinkage
(lower value is most common). Drying shrinkage is
due to loss of absorbed water round gel particles
and swelling is due to absorption of water by the
cement gel. The water molecules act against the
cohesive force and tend to force the gel particles
further apart as a result of which swelling takes
place. In addition, the ingress of water decreases the
surface tension of the gel. The property of swelling
in wet condition and shrinkage in drying is referred
to as moisture movement of concrete as shown in
figure for 1:1 cement: mortar and R.H at 50%.