Impact of drying on concrete and concrete structures

Abstract

This study reviews research showing changes in the performance of reinforced concrete structures and members caused by drying conditions, and aims to contribute to evaluating the structural safety in the long-term use of concrete. Additionally, to build a consensus on the changes in the physical properties of concrete materials after drying, the review focused on experiments intended to produce a uniform distribution of moisture-induced material property changes in the interior of the cross-section.
 There is generally no effect on the change in the maximum loading capacity of a structure when the design is based on the flexural performance of the components. However, in the case of structures dominated by members determined by the shear capacity of the components, the reduction of the maximum loading capacity can be a problem. The decrease in stiffness is largely due to the opening of shrinkage cracks and the reduction of the Young’s modulus of concrete after drying. The change in the compressive strength of concrete due to drying is governed by the specific strength change of hardened cement paste caused by the colloidal nature, but it is also affected by the shrinkage of the aggregate, which changes the damage in concrete under drying.

Meso-scale Modeling of Anomalous Moisture Transport in Concrete Considering Microstructural Change of Cement-based Material

“…(Pihlajavaara 1974;Sereda et al 1966;Wittmann 1968;Yurtdas et al 2004aYurtdas et al , 2004bYurtdas et al , 2006Yurtdas et al , 2015 and structural performance of RC members (e.g., initial stiffness, strength, natural frequency, etc.) (Maruyama 2016(Maruyama , 2022Nakarai et al 2016;Sasano et al 2018;Sasano and Maruyama 2019;Sato and Kawakane 2008;Satya et al 2021;Tanimura et al 2007). In terms of durability, moisture evaporation cause drying-shrinkage cracks in concrete, which have been clarified as the accelerator for mass transport such as moisture (Van Belleghem et al 2016;Wang et al 1997;Yang et al 2006;Zhang et al 2010Zhang et al , 2017, chloride (Aldea et al 1999;Asselin et al 2023;Rodriguez and Hooton 2003), carbon dioxide (De Schutter 1999), and radioactive substances (Yamada et al 2019) that could lead to the severe damage for concrete.…”