Shrinkage and cracking behavior of high performance concretes containing chemical admixtures

Modern concretes often incorporate several chemical admixtures to alter the properties of fresh or hardened concrete. In this work, the influences of three types of chemical admixtures, calcium nitrite inhibitor (CNI), retarder (D-17) and superplasticizer (W-19) on free shrinkage and restrained shrinkage cracking of high performance concrete were experimentally investigated. The test results showed that, with the same water to binder ratio (0.4), mixtures containing D-17 of 0.25 percent or higher ratio of W-19 (2.76 percent) all exhibited a reduction in free shrinkage and shrinkage cracking width. However, the incorporations of various ratios of CNI into mixtures led to an increase in free shrinkage and shrinkage cracking width as compared to control mixture. In order to study the influence of CNI, the microstructure of concrete mixture containing CNI were investigated by Mercury Intrusion Porosimetry as well as Scanning Electronic Microscopy(SEM) technique.