Review and Specification for Shrinkage Cracks of Bridge Decks

An existing standard method ASTM C157 is used to determine the length change or free shrinkage of an unrestrained concrete specimen. However, in bridge decks, the concrete is actually under restrained conditions, and thus free shrinkage test methods do not represent the same condition of bridge decks and are not correlated to infield bridge deck shrinkage. An alternative for restrained shrinkage is to use one of the two existing standards American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) T334-08 or ASTM C1581. In these two restrained test methods, the concrete is cast in the circumference around an inner steel ring. The purpose of this study was to construct the apparatus for the AASHTO T334-08 method to estimate the cracking age of concrete mixtures that may be used in bridge decks. In the processes of the apparatus setup, several limitations to the method were discovered, such as the influence of the surrounding environment and the repeatability of the method. Thus, an additional study was done to evaluate the sensitivity of shrinkage measurements (ASTM C157 and AASHTO T334-08) in different surrounding environments, with different mix designs (e.g., varying w/cm, binder content and aggregate size), and different concrete specimen thicknesses. Overall, it was confirmed that most mixtures did not even indicate any cracking unless a high cement volume content of 24% with no coarse aggregates was tested using the existing AASHTO T334-08 restrained ring method. A thinner ring (2” of concrete instead of 3”) had a decreased age of cracking. The free shrinkage ASTM C157 is still the easiest, and a relatively fast method to use and can provide relative comparisons between different mixtures or between different environments.

• Record URL:
  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qkrjROsOUVPS0kWegQ_vK8R6sIBIqAR9/view?usp=sharing
• 
• Record URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/31717
• Corporate Authors:

  University of Utah, Salt Lake City

  Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
  110 South Central Campus Drive, Room 2115
  Salt Lake City, UT  United States  84112

  Utah Department of Transportation

  4501 South 2700 West
  Salt Lake City, UT  United States  84114-8410

  Federal Highway Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Allahham, Jafar
  • Bordelon, Amanda
  • Li, Lingkun
  • Rayaprolu, Siddartha
• Publication Date: 2016-12

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Edition: Final Report
• Features: Appendices; Figures; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 48p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Admixtures; Bridge decks; Cracking; Mix design; Shrinkage; Specifications; Test procedures; Thickness
• Identifier Terms: American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials
• Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Highways; Maintenance and Preservation; Materials;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01622653
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: UT-16.17
• Contract Numbers: 14.402
• Files: NTL, TRIS, ATRI, USDOT, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Jan 18 2017 12:06PM