Crack in concrete

Lecture 6
By Feseha Sahile (Dr.)
Crack in Concrete
• A crack is a complete or incomplete separation of concrete into two or
more parts produced by breaking or fracturing.

• Cracking are early indications of failure of structure. It is vital to note

that concrete does crack and this is usual. What is not normal is too
much of cracks.

• Cracks affects the building artistic and it also destroys the wall’s
integrity, affects the structure’s safety, even reduces the durability of
structure.
CLASSIFICATION OF CRACKS
• Crack can be classified as:
- STRUCTURAL CRACKS
- NON STRUCTURALCRACKS
structural crack are formed in concrete due to :
- Incorrect design
- Faulty construction
- Overloading
• Non structural cracks are cracks that are formed due to:
- Internal stress in building materials
TYPES OF CRACK BASED ON HARDENING OF CONCRETE
• The cracks that are formed Before hardening can be
classified as
Plastic
Constructional movement
• The cracks that are formed After hardening can also
classified as
Physical
-Drying shrinkage
-crazing
TYPES OF CRACK BASED……….
Chemical
-Corrosion of reinforcement
-Alkali aggregate reactions
Thermal
-freeze/ thaws cycle
-Temperature variations
-Early thermal contradiction
Structural
-Creep
-overloading
CAUSES OF CRACKS AND ITS REMEDIES
PLASTIC SHRINKAGE CRACKING
It arises when the rate of evaporation of water from top layer of
freshly laid
• concrete is greater than bleed water provided by underlying concrete,
due to this surface concrete contracts.
• Due to the restraint shown by the concrete below the drying surface
concrete layer the tensile stresses are develop in the weak and
stiffening plastic concrete.
• These cracks usually are parallel to one another and are spaced 0.3m
to 1m apart.
• These cracks may be as much as 5cm to 10cm in depth and up to
3mm in width.
Plastic shrinkage cracking occur due to:
• Temperature of air above concrete is high.
• Low relative humidity .
• Wind velocity above concrete is high.
Preventive measures of plastic shrinkage include use of:
• Styrene butadiene latex co-polymer as:- bonding agent
• Plastic sheeting to cover concrete
• Wind breaks to decrease the wind velocity
• Fog nozzles to saturate the air above concrete
DRYING SHRINKAGE
• After hardening, concrete starts drying.
• The excess water leaves the system causing contraction or
shrinkage.
• This excess water, called water of convenience would have
been added to get adequate workability and finish.
• The loss of free water contained in hardened concrete, does
not result in any appreciable dimension change.
• It is the loss of water held in gel pores that causes the change
in the volume.
• Smaller size of aggregate more shrinkage finer gel
PREVENTIVE MEASURES :
• Rigid formwork.
• Use of acrylic polymer for crack filling and tile joint
filling by mixing along with white cement.
• Leak proof formwork.
• Use of screed vibrator and float for surface finishing.
• Use of a ‘rich” concrete mix (400 kg/m³ binder, W/C =
0.4) should be encouraged.
CONCRETE CRAZING
• Crazing is the development of a network of fine random cracks or
fissures on the surface of concrete caused by shrinkage of the surface
layer.
• These cracks are rarely more than 3mm deep, and are more noticeable
on over floated or steel-troweled surfaces.
• CAUSES :
Poor or inadequate curing.
 Intermittent wet curing and drying.
Excessive floating
 Excessive laitance on surface.
Cont.….
Finishing with float when bleed water is on the surface.
• Sprinkling cement on the surface to dry up the bleed
water.
PREVENTIVE MEASURE :
• Proper and early start of curing.
• Use of curing compound on the surface.
• Never sprinkle dry cement or a mixture of cement and
fine sand on the surface of the plastic concrete.
THERMAL VARIATIONS
• Temperature difference within a concrete structure may be
caused by portions of the structure losing heat of hydration at
different rates at one portion of the structure to a different
degree or at a different rate than another portion of the
structure.
• These temperature differences result in differential volume
change, leading to cracks.
• The more massive is the structure, the greater is the potential
for temperature differential and restraint.
• Hardened concrete has a coefficient of thermal expansion that
may range from 4 to 9 x 10-6 per deg. F.
PREVENTIVE MEASURES:
• Controlling the rate at which the concrete cools by insulating the
exposed concrete surface during first 5 days.
• Increasing the tensile strength of concrete.
• Reducing the concrete temperature at placement up to say 32 ˚C.
• Using low heat of hydration cement or using fly ash replacement of
part of cement.
• Keeping steel formwork warm by air heating during winter.
• Use of thermally insulating material as formwork.
• Low grade of cement, OPC 33 grade is the best.
CRACKING DUE TO CHEMICAL REACTION
• Deleterious chemical reactions may cause cracking of concrete, due to
materials used to make the concrete or materials that come into contact
with the concrete after it has hardened.

• Concrete may crack with time as the result of slowly developing

expansive reactions between aggregate containing active silica and
alkalis derived from cement hydration, admixtures or external sources.

• Alkali – silica reaction Formation of gel pores Local expansion

PREVENTIVE MEASURES:
• Proper selection of aggregate – it should be innocuous to
alkalinity.

• Cement with low alkalinity (preferably less than 0.5, IS:456

limit is 0.6).

• Use of Pozzolanas (like fly ash and blast furnace slag) which
themselves contain very fine highly active silicon.
ERRORS IN DESIGN AND DETAILING
• Poorly detailed re entrant corners in walls, precast members and
slabs.

• Restraint to members subjects to volume changes caused by

variations in temperature and moisture.

• Lack of adequate contraction joints.

• Improper design of foundations resulting in differential movement

within the structure.
WEATHERING
• It includes freezing and thawing, wetting and drying and heating and
cooling.

• Damage due to freezing and thawing is the most common weather

related to physical deterioration.

• Damage in hardened cement paste from freezing is caused by the

movement of water to freezing sites and by hydraulic pressure
generated by growth of ice crystal.
PREVENTIVE MEASURE :
• Use of lowest practical water cement ratio and total water
content

• Durable aggregate

• Adequate air entrainment

• Allowing structure to dry after curing

POOR CONSTRUCTION PRACTICE
• Some poor construction practices that results in cracking are :
- Adding water to improve workability
- Lack of curing
- Inadequate formwork support
- Inadequate compaction
- Placement of construction joints at high stress

PREVENTIVE MEASURES:
• Proper monitoring and use of good quality of materials is required at the time of
construction
STRUCTURAL OVERLOADS
• Concrete gets damaged due to structural overload which are very easy
to detect.

• Precast member like beam and are generally subjected to this type of
load.

• Most unfortunate things about cracks is due to structural overload are

that cracks are detected at early stages.

 PREVENTIVE MEASURE :
• These types of cracks can be prevented if designer limit the load on
FOUNDATION MOVEMENT AND SETTLEMENT OF SOIL
• Shear cracks in buildings occur when there is large differential
settlement of foundation and it may be either due to the following
reasons:
• Unequal bearing pressure under different parts of the structure
• Bearing pressure on soil being in excess of safe bearing strength of
the soil
• Low factor of safety in the design of foundation
• Local variation in the nature of supporting soil
Preventative Measure:
• The design of foundation should be based on sound engineering
principles and good practice.
VEGETATION
• Fast growing trees in the area around the walls can sometimes cause cracks in
walls due to expansive action of roots growing under the foundation.

• The cracks occur in clay soil due to moisture contained by roots.

PREVENTIVE MEASURE:

• Do not grow trees too close to the building. Remove any saplings of trees as
soon as possible if they start growing in or near of walls.