Moisture flow in porous media is the driving force behind early age drying shrinkage. Fracture in the interfacial transition zone (ITZ), between cement paste and aggregateinclusion, is related to restraint caused by, among others, aggregates that obstruct free deformation of the paste. Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope (ESEM) test results are used as a base for the developed method for...

A mathematical model for the description of drying shrinkage of autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC) is presented, bringing together the hygrothermal and mechanical considerations. The verification of the model is done using an approximation of a real laboratory experiment. Then, the applicability of the model is demonstrated by a numerical simulation of drying shrinkage and wetting expansion of A...

In this paper, the sorption isotherm and the hygral deformation of a tensile strain-hardening fiber reinforced engineered cementitious composite (ECC) is described using a physical model. The influence of using a low alkali content Portland cement on the physical mechanisms of drying shrinkage is discussed. From a durability point of view the crack width of a material as a result of restrained ...

Shrinkage of concrete, along with the cracking that often accompanies it, has been a continual concern of the concrete construction community.1,2 In the past 20 years or so, numerous shrinkage-reducing admixtures (SRAs) have been developed with the goal of reducing drying shrinkage and delaying or preventing cracking.2-6 Most SRAs function by reducing the surface tension of the pore solution in...

A new experimental method which allows the direct separation of the components of drying creep due to micro cracking and stress-induced shrinkage is developed, demonstrated and validated. The hasic idea is to compare the curL'CIture creep of heams suhjected to the same hending moment hut rery different axial forces. The results confirm that drying creep has two different sources: microcracking ...

Challenging evaluation of tropical forest biodiversity requires the reporting of taxonomic diversity but also the systematic characterization of wood properties in order to discover new promising species for timber industry. Among wood properties, the dimensional stability is regarded as a major technological characteristic to validate whether a wood species is adapted to commercial uses. Cell ...

In this study, the dimensional changes of articular cartilage during cryofixation (immersion-freezing) followed by freeze-substitution and critical-point-drying or tertiary-butyl alcohol drying were compared with conventional fixation techniques. The cryotechnique resulted in 11% shrinkage of the articular cartilage. During conventional chemical fixation, the sample shrank by 28%. No difference...

expansive soils show swelling and shrinkage behavior when subjected to cyclic wetting and drying. the variation in water content influence the volume change in this kind of soil. these volume changes can cause ground movement which may result in damage to the buildings and structures. to study the behavior, a number of successive wetting-drying cycles were conducted on a statically compacted ex...