Performance of passive methods in plastic shrinkage cracking mitigation

The occurrence of plastic shrinkage cracking in fresh concrete may significantly compromise its service life. Therefore, it is essential to reduce the crack width with appropriate, efficient and effective methods. This study is dedicated to comparing the ability of passive mitigation methods including: Shrinkage Reducing Admixtures (SRA), accelerators based on Calcium Silicate Hydrate seeding agents and curing compounds, in controlling the plastic shrinkage cracking in the drying state. The performance of the different admixtures was evaluated according to the ASTM C1579-13 standard. Furthermore, a series of complementary test methods were utilized to study the mechanism of action of the different admixtures. Among the crack mitigation methods that were studied in this paper, SRA were the most effective.