Construction and Building Materials 61 (2014) 260269

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Construction and Building Materials

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat

Autogenous shrinkage of high performance concrete containing mineral

admixtures under different curing temperatures
Chenhui Jiang a,b, Yang Yang c,, Yong Wang c, Yuenian Zhou d, Chengchang Ma c
a

College of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310014, PR China
Department of Construction Engineering, Zhejiang College of Construction, Hangzhou 311231, PR China
c
College of Architecture and Construction Engineering, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310014, PR China
d
Zhoushan Supervision Station of Construction Engineering Quality, Zhoushan 316000, PR China
b

h i g h l i g h t s
 We provided a database of autogenous shrinkage of HPC under different temperatures.
 We updated the measurement method of autogenous shrinkage.
 FA and BS will decrease and increase autogenous shrinkage respectively.
 Both the rate and the magnitude of autogenous shrinkage vary with temperature.
 We proposed an equation of estimating autogenous shrinkage at different temperatures.

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 26 November 2013
Received in revised form 17 March 2014
Accepted 17 March 2014
Available online 5 April 2014
Keywords:
Autogenous shrinkage
High performance concrete (HPC)
Fly ash (FA)
Blast-furnace slag (BS)
Curing temperature
Waterbinder ratio (w/b)
Estimation

a b s t r a c t
The present study investigated experimentally autogenous shrinkage behaviors of high performance
concrete (HPC) containing y ash (FA) and blast-furnace slag (BS) exposed to different isothermal
temperatures. The deformation of concrete specimen after initial setting was determined using a modied method which is based on non-contact measurement technique. The results indicated that the
method can precisely monitor non-load induced deformations of HPC mixtures. The inclusions of BS
and FA resulted in signicant increase and decrease of autogenous shrinkage of HPC, respectively. While
both the rate and the magnitude of autogenous shrinkage for almost all mixtures were increased with rise
of curing temperature, extents of the inuence were varied with waterbinder ratio, composition of
cementitious materials and age. It is noted that although the equivalent age equation was widely applied
to evaluate temperature dependence of mechanical properties of cement-based materials, its applicability on autogenous shrinkage of HPC was questionable. In addition, on a trial and error basis, a modied
autogenous shrinkage equation was performed in terms of numerical tting of the measured data.
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
In recent years, as a typical structural material, high performance concrete (HPC) is widely used in civil engineering because
of its excellent performance, namely high workability, high
strength, high durability and long-term performance [13]. For
the purpose of improving performance of concrete, lower and
lower w/b are executed [2,3], and a series of mineral and chemical
admixtures (such as y ash (FA), ground granulated blast furnace
slag (BS) and superplasticizer) are introduced [13]. Accordingly,
many aspects of micro-structures of HPC are distinguished from
normal concrete, which further results in differences of
Corresponding author. Tel./fax: +86 571 8832 0124.
E-mail address: yangyang@zjut.edu.cn (Y. Yang).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2014.03.023
0950-0618/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

macro-properties [1,2]. As a predominant aspect, considerable

early-age volume changes of HPC usually compromise its high
performance. Due to various types of internally and/or externally
restraints in concrete structures, these volume changes cannot
release freely, and tensile stress often arises. As tensile stress
increases and exceeds tensile strength of HPC at a specic age,
early-age cracking happens. Once cracking, the strength, long-term
performance and global stability of HPC structures will be deteriorated seriously. In general, early-age volume changes of HPC are
mainly composed of autogenous shrinkage, thermal deformation
and drying shrinkage [1], which induced by self-desiccation of
capillary porosity, by temperature and moisture gradients between
concrete and exterior surroundings, respectively [13].
It is observed that compared to thermal deformation and drying
shrinkage, autogenous shrinkage accounts for the foremost

261

C. Jiang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 61 (2014) 260269

signicance in volume change components of HPC at early ages

[3,4]. Researchers have issued a great quantity of scientic literature and technical reports on terminology, experimental methods,
mechanism, and prediction models on autogenous shrinkage and
induced restrained stress [1,36] in last two decades. As a typical
aging material, concrete is subjected to vital temperature
variations induced by heat release (temperature rise) associated
with hydration of cementitious materials, by subsequent cooling
(temperature drop) due to heat transfer [3,6,7], and by changes
in ambient temperature when concreting is performed under relatively hot and cold climatic conditions. Autogenous shrinkage
mainly results from self-desiccation in porosity, which is intensively related to cement hydration. Whereas the rate and degree
of hydration closely depend on the exposed temperature history
of concrete, it can be inferred that a link is existed between the exposed temperature history and autogenous shrinkage.
However, limited research work on this topic is available, and
most of the work focuses on cement pastes. The inuences of curing temperature on autogenous shrinkage have been investigated
rstly by Tazawa and Miyazawa in Japan [8], who conrmed temperature effects of autogenous shrinkage can be estimated by an
equivalent age equation. Jensen and Hansen demonstrated that
the traditional maturity concept generally is not applicable to
autogenous deformation and autogenous RH change of hardening
cement paste [10]. Weiss, Lura and Sant examined the inuences
of curing temperature on autogenous deformation in cement paste
containing shrinkage reducing admixtures [9,27]. Based on experimental investigation, Chu et al. [7] concluded that high curing
temperature at early ages results in lower autogenous shrinkage
at later ages when compared to the cases subjected to relatively
low curing temperature at early ages. They suggested that the
equivalent age function [10,11] is not applicable to evaluate
temperature dependence of autogenous shrinkage at early ages
[9]. From the point of view of development rate, Maruyama and
Teramoto [12] divided autogenous shrinkage of ultra high strength
concrete into two stages, i.e., the earlier age followed by the later
age stage. Lower temperature increased autogenous shrinkage at
earlier-age stage; higher temperature produced larger autogenous
shrinkage at later-age stage. Therefore, in these literatures, no consensus is reached on autogenous shrinkage behavior exposed to
different temperature conditions. Meanwhile, little work is focused
on effects of FA and BS that is commonly used as supplementary
cementing materials [24,2831] on autogenous shrinkage.
In order to explore the inuence of temperature on autogenous
shrinkage of HPC in depth, an experimental investigation is
performed on a series of typical HPC containing FA and BS exposed
to 3 different isothermal temperatures. For the sake of monitoring
volume change strain of HPC exactly, especially at early ages, a
testing method based on a non-contact measurement technique
is used. Also, a modication based on Tazawa and Miyazawas
model of autogenous shrinkage [8] is performed.

Table 1
Testing parameters and their levels.
Corresponding levels

Water binder ratio (w/b)

Composition of cementitious materials
(by mass)

0.20; 0.30; 0.40

OPa: 100%OP, no inclusions of FA
and BS
FAb: 65%OP + 35%FA
BSc: 50%OP + 50%BS
10; 20; 30
1; 3; 7; 14; 28

Curing temperature (C)

Age of strength test (d)
a
b
c

OP stands for ordinary Portland cement.

FA stands for y ash.
BS stands for blast furnace slag.

uorescence analysis and potential mineral compounds of cement are tabulated

in Table 2. Crushed stone with a maximum nominal size of 20 mm, and river sand
are used as coarse and ne aggregates, respectively. Also, a liquid polycarboxylatebased superplasticizer (SP) is used to adjust workability of different w/b HPC
mixtures to the same level.
2.2.2. Concrete mixture proportions
As shown in Table 3, the mixtures without mineral admixture are viewed as
control mixtures. As far as the mixtures with the same w/b, total mass contents
of binders are constant, i.e., FA and BS replace cement by equivalent mass, respectively. For the purpose of gaining similar slump, slump ow and air content, the
dosages of superplasticizer are properly adjusted. One more thing, in order to keep
the same level of restraint effects of aggregate to volume change, the same amount
of ne and coarse aggregate are adopted in all mixtures excluding VF-30.
2.3. Autogenous shrinkage
2.3.1. Testing methods
Measurements of autogenous shrinkage have been carried out in two fundamentally different ways: measurement of volumetric strain and of linear strain
(one-dimensional strain). Compared to measuring volumetric strain, linear strain
provides more explicit engineering denition, and its measurement is much easier
to handle and control. One major disadvantage of the previous linear method [3,13
15] is the tremendous obstacle of starting the measurements immediately after
casting, because measurement apparatus (e.g., linear variable differential
transducer) is difcult to install when concrete is at a plastic state before setting.
Recently, early-age linear strain of concrete is generally measured with noncontact sensors [1315,27], such as laser-based sensor and capacitive sensors. In
this work, they are replaced by an eddy-current displacement sensor (ECDS) which
operate with electromagnetic induction effect. The details of the testing apparatus
using the ECDS are shown in Fig. 1. There has certain advantages of ECDS used over
laser-based sensors, such as the requirements on testing environment of the former
are lower than those of the latter, which cannot be applied in dirty and dusty surrounding, and the prices of the ECDS are generally superior to the laser-based ones
[15]. To improve the reusing rate of the ECDS, up to the age of 3 days, electric

Table 2
Oxide and potential mineral compositions (by mass) and physical properties of
cementitious materials.

2. Experimental program
2.1. Experimental parameters
As tabulated in Table 1, experimental parameters mainly including w/b, composition of cementitous material and curing temperature. Corresponding levels of
each parameter are set based on characteristic of HPC mixtures and typical exposure conditions, respectively. Also, substitution ratios of FA and BS are in the range
of typical applications.

Items

Unit

OP

FA

BS

CaO
SiO2
Al2O3
Fe2O3
MgO
Na2O
SO3
LOIa

%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%

62.64
22.24
5.34
3.20
0.63
0.29
2.64
1.67

3.60
59.31
22.10
8.26
1.82
0.33
0.28

31.33
33.05
15.47
0.27
16.11
0.72
0.37

45.5
29.5
8.7
9.7
3.12
376

2.25
343

2.90
436

Potential mineral compounds

C3S
%
C2S
%
C3A
%
C4AF
%
Specic gravity
g/cm3
Finenessb
m2/kg

2.2. Materials and mixture proportions

2.2.1. Materials
Ordinary Portland cement (OP) in accordance with China National Standard GB
175-2009, y ash (FA) and ground granulated blast furnace slag (BS) are used as
cementitious materials (binders). Their oxide compositions based on X-ray

Testing parameters

a
b

LOI stands for loss on ignition of cement.

Test by the Blaine air permeability method.

262

C. Jiang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 61 (2014) 260269

Table 3
Mixture proportions and basic properties of the HPC.
Mix. ID

a
b
c

w/b

Unit contents of raw materials (kg/m3)

Basic properties

OP

FA

BS

SP (%)

Slump (mm)

Slump ow (mm)

Air content (%)

28d fcb (MPa)

115.3
85.7
71.3
94.3
74.5
47.9
108.3
75.1
59.8

OP-20
OP-30
OP-40
FA-20
FA-30
FA-40
BS-20
BS-30
BS-40

0.20
0.30
0.40
0.20
0.30
0.40
0.20
0.30
0.40

700
600
500
455
390
325
350
300
250

245
210
175

350
300
250

140
180
200
140
180
200
140
180
200

2.00
1.00
0.80
1.70
0.90
0.70
1.50
0.75
0.50

600
600
600
600
600
600
600
600
600

900
900
900
900
900
900
900
900
900

265
270
275
275
265
270
280
275
280

600  605
610  620
620  630
650  655
655  660
660  675
625  635
660  670
665  670

4.2
3.9
3.4
3.8
3.6
4.2
3.2
3.6
3.9

VF-30c

0.30

533

160

1.90

656

944

560  560

63.4

Dosages of SP are based on mass of total cementitious materials.

28d fc stands for compressive strength of concrete at the age of 28 days.
A mixture is prepared for verifying the autogenous shrinkage equation.

resistance strain gauges (ERSG) stuck on surface of the specimen is used to monitor
shrinkage strain subsequently. It is proved in latter section that this method has
great practical value, enough precision and good reproducibility.
2.3.2. Testing details
As shown in Fig. 1(a) and (b), two identical sensor supports are installed and
fastened on the top of steel prism mould with interior size of
100  100  400 mm. The ECDS are xed on the sensor supports, and their
positions could be regulated previously. Two U-shaped invar steel target seats are
positioned properly on the bottom surface of the steel mould (see also Fig. 1(c)).
After casting the HPC mixtures, target seats will be embedded in concrete specimen,
and will deform simultaneously with concrete. Standard targets are magnetically
attached on target seats (see also Fig. 1(f)), respectively.
The standard targets and the corresponding ECDS constitute fundamental
elements for stirring up eddy-current, and any tiny deformation of concrete
specimen causing by self-desiccation, temperature and moisture gradients, etc.,
can be monitored by signal conversion device, which transforms electric signals
into displacements. Intervals of measurement data acquisition can be set freely.

To minimize friction between inner surfaces of steel mould and concrete

specimen, Teon sheets are placed on the inner surfaces of steel mould, as shown
in Fig. 1(c). Also, two buckles are used to x the positions of target seats before
monitoring of concrete deformation, and removed at the moment of measurement. Top surface of the concrete specimen is sealed by two layers of polyethylene lms (see Fig. 1(d)) so that the measured linear strain not contains the
component due to exterior drying (dened as total deformation). Corresponding
to Fig. 1(a), (b) and (e) shows the state of specimen and testing apparatus
immediately before deformation monitoring. There are also close-up shots of
the U-shaped target seat and the installed ECDS, as shown in Fig. 1(f) and (g),
respectively. Round holes in the target seat make sure its anchorage effect in concrete and uniformity of specimen. It is worth mentioning that the usage of gaskets attached to target seat is minimizing friction between the target seat and
bottom surface of the mould.
In order to separate autogenous shrinkage from the measured total deformation, thermal deformation must be determined and offset. Therefore, temperature
history at the center of concrete specimen was concurrently monitored with a
thermocouple.

Fig. 1. Autgenous shrinkage test method from initial set to 3-day age: (a) top view and (b) front view; (c) steel mould with pre-attached U-shaped target seats; (d) concrete
mixture casted into steel mould; (e) installation of ECDS on surface of the mould and (f) standard target attached upon target seat; (g) an amplication of ECDS.

263

C. Jiang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 61 (2014) 260269

Concrete specimen is demolded and wrapped up using polyethylene lm and
aluminum foil sequentially at the age of 3 days. Two pieces of 3-wire ERSG (with
gauge length of 90 mm and electric resistance of 120 X) are stuck on two lateral
surfaces of specimen carefully, and then sealed the ERSG completely. The measurement period lasts up to the age of 60 days in the study.
In addition, curing and measurements of linear strain of volume change are conducted at walk-in isothermal chambers with temperatures of (10 2), (20 2) and
(30 2) C, and relative humidity (RH) of (60 5)%, respectively.

other well. After that, there is about 3.5% of maximum deviation

between the two replicate specimens named as specimen_1
and specimen_2. As far as ERSG measurements are concerned,
3 curves plotted from 3 groups of strain data on the same specimen
show similar trends and good uniformity (see Fig. 2(b)). Although
ERSG-3 slightly diverges from ERSG-1 and ERSG-2, if systematic error is considered, their deviations are acceptable.

2.4. Setting time

3.2. Basic properties of HPC mixtures

A technical committee on autogenous shrinkage of the Japan Concrete Institute
(JCI) dened autogenous shrinkage as the macroscopic volume reduction of cementitious materials when cement hydrates after initial setting [3,13]. This denition
implies that the initial setting time is the start point of autogenous shrinkage.
Although there are a series of testing methods for setting time of concrete [16,17],
penetration resistance method as prescribed in ASTM C403 which is simple and easy
to handle is conducted in this study. To reduce moisture evaporation, a polyethylene
lm and a damp cloth are covered sequentially on the surface of the sample. The
samples are cured in the same condition for autogenous shrinkage specimens.
2.5. Compressive strength
Compressive strength of the HPC is measured using 100 mm cubes specimens at
the ages of 1, 3, 7, and 28 days, respectively. The cubes in moulds are rstly stored
in the above-mentioned chambers for 24 h and then stripped, and placed in water
until the age of testing.

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Validation of shrinkage measurement method
To verify the effectiveness and reproducibility of the modied
method for measuring autogenous shrinkage, a trial and error
was performed before put into practice, and results are shown in
Fig. 2. It is nd that desirable reproducibility and stability can be
achieved. In Fig. 2(a), two curves of linear strain obtained from
two replicate specimens based on the ECDS coincide with each

3.2.1. Setting time

Initial and nal setting times of the HPC mixtures used are tabulated in Table 4. These experimental data show that the higher
the curing temperature and the lower the w/b, the earlier the set
happens. Compared to the control mixtures, the mixtures containing FA and BS display evident setting retardation, which results
from minor pozzolanic activity of FA and BS at very early ages. It
seems as if inuences of curing temperature on setting time of
the higher w/b mixtures is greater than that of the lower w/b ones.
Also, the effects of curing temperature on nal setting time are
more signicant than those on initial setting time.
3.2.2. Temperature characteristic
Although constant curing temperatures are imposed on the HPC
in this study, the temperature in specimens are not necessarily constant. Since heat of hydration releases, temperature in specimen
rise and then drop with heat exchange between specimen and surroundings. Peak values and rates of temperature rise are dependent
on a series of physical parameters such as the phase composition
and neness of the cement, mineral admixtures employed, heat
capacity, thermal conductivity of concrete mixtures [6].
As shown in Fig. 3, the mixtures with lower w/b generally
correspond to higher peak values and rates of temperature rise.

Fig. 2. Reproducibility and stability and of the shrinkage test method used: (a) shrinkage strain on two identical specimens, obtained from non-contact shrinkage apparatus
and (b) shrinkage strain on 3 different lateral sides of the same specimen, obtained from 3 pieces of ERSGs, respectively.

Table 4
Initial and nal setting time (h) of the HPC mixtures used.
Mix. ID

OP-30

OP-40

FA-20

FA-30

FA-40

BS-20

BS-30

BS-40

Curing temperature of 10 C
Initial setting
4.8
Final setting
11.1

OP-20

10.3
14.6

11.1
16.1

5.2
11.2

10.0
14.8

14.0
18.6

10.3
15.8

12.0
17.6

14.0
18.9

Curing temperature of 20 C
Initial setting
4.0
Final setting
7.4

7.4
9.8

8.2
11.7

4.9
10.2

8.0
11.0

8.9
12.8

5.9
11.0

7.3
11.0

9.1
14.2

Curing temperature of 30 C
Initial setting
3.6
Final setting
5.8

4.2
6.2

5.8
8.7

3.6
6.2

4.5
6.8

6.5
8.8

3.7
6.9

4.9
7.3

6.9
9.2

264

C. Jiang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 61 (2014) 260269

Shoulders appeared in curves of temperature history demonstrate

that the addition of FA and BS alleviates temperature rise signicantly. The curves have obvious distinction under different curing
temperatures. Because hydration rate is much slower under lower
curing temperature, temperature rise value (i.e., the difference between peak and initial values) and temperature rise rate are lower.
On the one hand, temperature variation results in thermal deformation, which fully coupled with autogenous shrinkage. On the
other, temperature affects the hydration and self-desiccation of
cementitious materials, which further affects autogenous shrinkage.
Furthermore, at early-age stage, non-stable thermal expansion
coefcients of concrete [12,18,19] make things much more

complicated. For simplicity, the measurement of autogenous strain

was corrected for thermal strain by assuming that the thermal
expansion coefcient of concrete was 10  106/C. The correction
is calculated assuming that no temperature gradient existed
between the surface and the core of the specimen because of its
smaller cross section.
3.2.3. Compressive strength
Compressive strength of all 10 mixtures at specic ages under
different curing temperatures is tabulated in Table 5. The following
conclusions can be drawn from these testing data: (1) lower w/b
mixtures obtained higher strength; (2) the development rate of

Fig. 3. Evolution of temperature at the center of concrete specimen: (a) curing temperature of 10 C, (b) 20 C and (c) 30 C for the 9 HPC mixtures. Legends in the graphs and
subsequent gures are interpreted in form of schematic.

Table 5
Compressive strength (MPa) of HPC mixtures used.
Mix. ID

OP-20

OP-30

OP-40

Curing temperature of 10 C
1d
40.4
3d
92.4
7d
94.8
28d
99.2

23.8
55.3
64.7
74.6

7.4
33.1
46.6
62.6

Curing temperature of 20 C
1d
65.5
3d
93.6
7d
98.1
28d
115.3

42.2
62.3
74.5
85.7

Curing temperature of 30 C
1d
84.7
3d
95.4
7d
97.4
28d
103.9

55.3
64.3
70.3
80.6

FA-20

FA-30

FA-40

16.8
55.3
71.0
89.9

13.6
36.0
48.6
72.1

5.2
18.4
28.5
46.2

22.6
41.7
52.5
71.3

37.9
65.9
78.1
94.3

34.8
43.9
57.7
74.5

35.1
47.7
54.0
74.7

59.2
78.7
85.3
115.2

34.8
56.1
61.0
91.3

BS-20

BS-30

BS-40

20.7
54.6
72.4
87.1

8.1
28.6
48.1
66.2

2.7
13.6
24.9
42.7

7.2
21.4
33.2
47.9

13.5
56.7
95.5
108.3

11.0
33.9
53.9
75.1

5.1
21.2
38.5
59.8

18.8
33.3
44.5
67.5

45.0
88.3
104.3
116.1

27.1
60.3
76.9
91.0

14.2
35.3
44.5
70.7

C. Jiang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 61 (2014) 260269

lower w/b mixtures is faster than that of higher w/b mixtures; (3)
the effects of curing temperature on strength of the mixtures
containing FA/BS are greater than these of the control mixtures
and (4) higher curing temperature is benecial to strength
development of the mixtures containing FA/BS.
3.3. Autogenous shrinkage
3.3.1. Effects of w/b on autogenous shrinkage
It is supposed that the deformation before initial setting has
negligible inuence on stress development in a restrained concrete

265

member, so the autogenous strain is zeroed at the initial set for all
mixtures under different curing temperatures. Test results for control mixtures in Fig. 4 show that lower w/b HPC mixtures exhibited
larger autogenous shrinkage than higher w/b mixtures, and that
the increasing rate of the former is superior to the latter. This is
in agreement with those reported by Tazawa and Miyazawa [8],
Lura [4] and Lim and Wee [17]. For all the concretes studied, 60%
or more of the autogenous shrinkage strain up to 60 days occurred
during the rst 2 weeks after casting. Thus, the early-age autogenous shrinkage should not be overlooked and underestimated, as
the concrete is most susceptible to cracking at early ages due to

Fig. 4. Effects of w/b on early-age autogenous shrinkage: (a) age-dependent curves of autogenous shrinkage strain for 3 control (pure cement) mixtures under curing
temperature of 30 C and (b) autogenous shrinkage ratio (i.e., the ratio of autogenous shrinkage value at a specic age to the 60d value) vs. age for 3 control mixtures under
curing temperature of 30 C.

Fig. 5. Effects of mineral admixtures on early-age autogenous shrinkage: (a) mixtures with w/b = 0.20 under 20 C curing; (b) mixtures with w/b = 0.20 under 30oC curing; (c)
mixtures with w/b = 0.30 under 30 C curing and (d) mixtures with w/b = 0.40 under 30 C curing.

266

C. Jiang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 61 (2014) 260269

its low tensile strength and strain capacity. For the control mixtures, although the same reduction of w/b happens, when it
decreases from 0.40 to 0.30 and from 0.30 to 0.20, resulted
increases of autogenous shrinkage are unnecessarily same. In other
words, the increase of autogenous shrinkage is not proportional to
the decrease of w/b. In addition, these explanations and conclusions are also suitable to other mixtures under different curing
temperatures which not plotted in Fig. 4.
Occasionally, swelling can be observed in the FA and BS mixtures, a contribution to this swelling could be re-absorption of
bleeding water. It has been observed that removing the bleeding
water reduces the swelling [3,4], but does not eliminate it totally.
The residual swelling could be due to internal bleeding in the mixture. In the present research, a little external bleeding has been
observed in BS and FA mixtures. Other possible explanations of this
phenomenon could be found at the scale of the hydration products
and early-age ettringite formation [4,9,10,20]. In a word, the earlyage expansion is far from fully understood and it complicates the
interpretation of autogenous shrinkage measurements, leading to
confusion in the shrinkage behavior.
3.3.2. Effects of mineral admixtures on autogenous shrinkage
As partially shown in Fig. 5, all BS mixtures have higher autogenous shrinkage than the OP ones; all FA mixtures have lower
autogenous shrinkage than the OP ones with the same w/b and
exposed to the same temperature. The higher autogenous shrinkage of concrete containing BS may be due to the greater chemical
shrinkage than that of the concrete with pure Portland cement.
Thus, the greater chemical shrinkage led to faster and greater
self-desiccation, and results in larger autogenous shrinkage. Moreover, the use of BS makes cement paste have a ner pore structure,

as conrmed by its lower permeability [1,2,17,30]. Finer pores contribute to a lower internal relative humidity, which increases the
degree of self-desiccation.
The behavior of autogenous shrinkage in FA mixtures seems to
be correlated with hydration characteristic of the pozzolanic material. With the substitution of cement by FA, internal relative
humidity of concrete decreases relatively slowly, self-desiccation
may not practically occurs, and consequently reduces autogenous
shrinkage. Another reason for decrease of autogenous shrinkage
is delayed hydration of FA (also be called as secondary hydration
or pozzolanic reaction), which must be premised on portlandite
produced by cement hydration. The delayed hydration produces
a negligible contribution to autogenous shrinkage because of improved stiffness of concrete. As illustrated in Tables 4 and 5,
although FA often reduces autogenous shrinkage, it also brings
set retardation, lower early-age strength and accelerated carbonation [2,6,8].
As far as the shrinkage rate is concerned, it can be seen from
Fig. 5, OP mixtures kept the maximum rate before the age of
3 days, followed by BS mixtures, and FA mixtures show the slowest
shrinkage rate. After that, the situation is changed, the autogenous
shrinkage of the BS mixtures continued increase rapidly and whose
development rate exceeded those of OP and FA ones. With lower
w/b and higher curing temperature, the characteristic is much
more remarkable.
3.3.3. Autogenous shrinkage under different curing temperatures
Fig. 6 shows the age-dependent curves of measured autogenous
shrinkage cured at 3 different temperatures. Both the rate and the
magnitude of autogenous shrinkage are signicantly varied with
the curing temperature. In general, higher curing temperature

Fig. 6. Effects of curing temperature on autogenous shrinkage for: (a) all OP mixtures; (b) all FA mixtures; (c) all BS mixtures; (d) autogenous shrinkage strain for w/b = 0.20
mixtures at specic ages (1, 3, 28, 60 days) vs. curing temperature.

C. Jiang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 61 (2014) 260269

results in greater autogenous shrinkage and its increasing rate. The

inuences of curing temperature are much more signicant at
earlier ages than at later ages. Also the inuences of elevated
temperature on autogenous shrinkage are more obvious in the
mixtures with lower w/b than the ones with higher w/b. This is
due to much higher binder contents in lower w/b mixtures. In lower w/b mixtures, considerable self-desiccation during rst several
days after casting will inevitably generate greater autogenous
shrinkage. Thereafter, the rate of development of autogenous
shrinkage becomes almost same regardless of curing temperatures.
In terms of early-age cracking risk, the rate of the autogenous
shrinkage is even more important than its magnitude, so it could
be speculated that higher curing temperatures increase the cracking risk, since the shrinkage develop more quickly. Unfortunately,
cross-over effect stated by Chu et al. [7,21,26] cannot be observed
in the relatively short period in this study.
It seems as if the effects of elevated curing temperature on
autogenous shrinkage of concrete mixtures with different cementitious systems are incompatible. As shown in Fig. 6(d), the increment of autogenous shrinkage of the OP-20 mixtures due to curing
temperature elevated from 20 C to 30 C is greater than elevated
from 10 C to 20 C, regardless of specic ages. However, the tendency is reversed for the BS-20 mixture. When it comes to the
FA-20 mixtures, no consistent tendency is existed. Relatively
speaking, autogenous shrinkage of FA mixtures is the least inuenced by variation of curing temperature in 3 series of mixtures.
Also, it is interesting that the change of autogenous shrinkage is
negligible when curing temperature elevated from 10 C to 20 C
for mixtures with higher w/b and mineral admixtures inclusion.
These phenomena can be explained from mechanism of hydration
and potential reactivity of different cementitious materials and
their temperature dependence.

267

Based on Arrheniuss principle [10,11] and the equivalent age

equation [7,10] proposed by Hansen and Jensen, autogenous
shrinkage of a series of typical HPC mixtures other than cement
paste or mortar under different curing temperatures are evaluated,
as partially shown in Fig. 7. Except the OP-30 mixture, autogenous
strain curves of the same mixture respectively exposed to 10, 20
and 30 C do not coincide with each other. It should be noted that
major deviations existed among three autogenous shrinkage evolution curves for mixtures with lower w/b and inclusion of mineral
admixtures. As a consequence, it is apparent that the temperature
dependence of autogenous shrinkage cannot be simply described
by the timetemperature transformations, as is also presented in
previous work [1,2,4,10]. As Hansen, Sant and Weiss et al.
explained, although the maturity concept can reasonably applied
in interpretation of cement hydration and related properties under
different temperatures, with respect to temperature dependence of
autogenous shrinkage, it seems difcult to apply [4,15,27]. When
the maturity concept is applied to cementitious systems, it is often
incorrectly assumed that the overall response depends exclusively
on the extent of reaction and their microstructure formation
processes are not inuenced by temperature. Obviously, it is
unreasonable as shown in many related study [4,9,15,27], selfdesiccation and autogenous shrinkage of HPC mixtures are
strongly related to its microstructure evolution that is strongly affected by thermodynamics. In addition, it is doubtful that constant
apparent activation energy is employed in the equivalent age
equation. Some authors think that apparent activation energy of
hydration is not independent on temperature, age and binder
composition [7,13,22,23]. Therefore, in order to correctly evaluate
autogenous shrinkage under different curing temperatures and
temperature history, new more reasonable theories and models
are needed.

Fig. 7. Autogenous shrinkage as a function of equivalent age at different temperatures for (a) OP-20 mixture; (b) OP-30 mixture; (c) FA-20 mixture and (d) BS-30 mixture.

268

C. Jiang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 61 (2014) 260269

3.3.4. Estimation of autogenous shrinkage considering curing

temperature and mineral admixtures
Many authors have tried to predict and estimate autogenous
shrinkage in terms of some basic parameters (e.g., w/b, compressive strength and porosity) and obtained experimental data
[3,13,19,23,25]. Due to differences in concrete making materials,
testing methods and conditions, each prediction model is inevitably applicable to specic conditions, a unied equation is impossibly constructed. To explore estimation of autogenous shrinkage
considering the effects of curing temperature and mineral admixtures, and to verify the obtained data, a trial and error based on
the following prediction model proposed by Tazawa [3,17,24] is
performed.

eAS t; 20 c  eAS;28  bt

eAS;28 3070  exp7:3  w=b

(



28  t is
bt exp a  1 
t  tis

b )
3

where eAS (t, 20) (106) is autogenous strain responding to curing

temperature of 20 C at the age of t (days), c is a coefcient to
describe the effect of mineral admixtures, eAS,28 (106) is the 28day autogenous strain of pure OPC concrete (i.e., OP mixtures in this
paper) cured at 20 C, b(t) is an age-dependent function of autogenous shrinkage rate at 20 C, w/b is waterbinder ratio, tis (days)
is initial setting time; and a and b are constants in terms of numerical tting of experimental data.
As shown in Eqs. (1)(3), the Tazawas prediction model has
failed to account for the temperature dependence of autogenous
shrinkage. In order to include temperature-dependence, a modi-

cation is made by comparing the differences of shrinkage strain between cured at 20 C and other temperatures. The modied model
is expressed in the following equation (Eq. (4)), i.e., a power item
including the temperature effects is added to the original model.

"

eAS t; T eAS t; 20  1

c
t  tis T20=d

#
4

where T (C) is actual curing temperature of concrete, and c and d

are constants in terms of numerical tting of experimental data.
When T equals to 20 C, it is assumed that the constant c equals
to zero. It is supposed that ultimate degree of hydration roughly
the same regardless of curing temperature and the same degree
of hydration responds to the same autogenous shrinkage, it is reasonable that the same limit-value of autogenous shrinkage strain
under various temperatures can be achieved in the model.
All constants in Eqs. (1)(4) are obtained by means of numerical
regression on the measured data. On account of a lack of theoretical evidence, maybe the modication is somewhat arbitrary. However, to a certain extent, the mathematical trends demonstrated by
the test data can be expressed directly. As an example, Fig. 8 shows
the comparison between estimated values and the experimental
results, the both in agreement with each other approximately.
Additionally, the mixture marked with VF-30 in Table 3 is used
for the verication of the modied equation. The comparisons between evaluated values and test results are presented in Fig. 8(d).
4. Summary and conclusions
As a concluding remark, the following points from this study are
highlighted:

Fig. 8. Estimation of autogenous shrinkage by a modication on a previous model: (a) OP-20, (b) FA-40 and (c) BS-30 mixture; (d) the VF-30 mixture is used to verify the
present model. It is noteworthy to mention that tting values for the constants (c, a, b, c and d) in Eqs. (1)(4) are also attached.

C. Jiang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 61 (2014) 260269

(1) For the purpose of accurately measuring linear autogenous

strain initiated from setting, the previous method is
modied with a high effective eddy-current displacement
sensor.
(2) The mixtures containing FA or BS display evident setting
retardation. Higher peak values and rates of temperature
rise correspond to the mixtures with lower w/b. The addition of FA and BS signicantly decreases temperature rise.
The effects of curing temperature on strength of the mixtures containing FA/BS are greater than those of the control
ones.
(3) Lower w/b mixtures exhibit larger autogenous shrinkage
and faster development. The inclusions of BS and FA result
in increase and decrease of autogenous shrinkage, respectively. While both the rate and the magnitude of autogenous
shrinkage for all mixtures are increase with rise of curing
temperature, their extents of inuence are vary with w/b,
and composition of cementitious materials. The temperature
dependence of autogenous shrinkage cannot be simply
described by the equivalent age function.
(4) A modied model for estimating autogenous shrinkage of
HPC is constructed, but its generalizability is a challenge
due to limited data and undened physical implications.

Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the National Natural Science Foundation of PR China (Project No. 50979098) and Department of Education of Zhejiang Province (Project No. Y201330182) for nancially
supporting this work, respectively. We are most grateful to anonymous reviewers for useful comments that helped to improve this
article.
References
[1] Atcin P-C. High-performance concrete. E & FN SPON; 1998.
[2] Mehta PK, Monteiro JM. Concrete: structure, properties, and materials. 2nd
ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall; 1993.
[3] Institute Japan Concrete. Technical committee report on autogenous
shrinkage. In: Tazawa, editor. Proc. of int. workshop. London: E&FN Spon;
1998. p. 163.
[4] Lura P. Autogenous deformation and internal curing of concrete. PhD Thesis,
Delft University of Technology, Delft; 2003.
[5] Holt EE, Leivo MT. Cracking risk associated with early age shrinkage. Cem
Concr Compos 2004;26(5):52130.
[6] Bentz DP. A review of early-age properties of cement-based materials. Cem
Concr Res 2008;38(7):196204.
[7] Chu I, Kwon SH, Amin MN, Kim JK. Estimation of temperature effects on
autogenous shrinkage of concrete by a new prediction model. Constr Build
Mater 2012;35(10):17182.
[8] Tazawa E, Miyazawa S. Inuence of cement and admixture on autogenous
shrinkage of cement paste. Cem Concr Res 1995;25(10):2817.

269

[9] Sant G. The inuence of temperature on autogenous volume changes in

cementitious materials containing shrinkage reducing admixtures. Cem Conc
Compos 2012;34(7):85565.
[10] Jensen OM, Hansen PF. Inuence of temperature on autogenous deformation
and relative humidity change in hardening cement paste. Cem Concr Res
1999;29(4):56775.
[11] Arrhenius S. On the reaction velocity of the inversion of cane sugar by acids. Z
Phys Chem 1889;11(4):226.
[12] Maruyama I, Teramoto A. Temperature dependence of autogenous shrinkage
of silica fume cement pastes with a very low water-binder ratio. Cem Concr
Res 2013;50(3):4150.
[13] Institute Japan Concrete. Technical committee report on autogenous shrinkage
of concrete. In: Tazawa E, editor. Proc. int. workshop. Hiroshima (Japan): E &
FN Spon; 1998. p. 162.
[14] Sant G, Lura P, Weiss J. Measurement of volume change in cementitious
materials at early ages: review of testing protocols and interpretation of
results. Transport Res Board 2005:1836.
[15] Eddy-current-sensors.
<http://www.lionprecision.com/inductive-sensors/
eddy-current-sensors.html>; 2011 [Last veried 22.06.11].
[16] Lee KM, Lee HK, Lee SH, Kim GY. Autogenous shrinkage of concrete containing
granulated blast-furnace slag. Cem Concr Res 2006;36(7):127985.
[17] Lim SN, Wee TH. Autogenous shrinkage of ground granulated blast furnace
slag concrete. ACI Mater J 2000;97(6):58793.
[18] Jung HY, Seong C, Moon CW. In situ measurement of coefcient of thermal
expansion in hardening concrete and its effect on thermal stress development.
Constr Build Mater 2013;38(7):30615.
[19] Jiang CH, Yang Y, Li P. Time dependence of thermal expansion behavior of
cement mortar at early ages. J Chin Ceram Soc 2013;41(5):339.
[20] Gao PW, Xu SY, Chen X. Research on autogenous volume deformation of
concrete with MgO. Consr Build Mater 2013;40(3):9981001.
[21] Viviani M, Glisic B, Smith IFC. Separation of thermal and autogenous
deformation at varying temperatures using optical ber sensors. Cem Concr
Compos 2007;29(6):43547.
[22] Jiang CH, Yang Y, Wang XD. A modied equivalent age equation for estimating
temperature dependence on properties of young HPC. Concrete
2013;48(11):2530 [in Chinese].
[23] Yoo SW, Kwon SJ, Jung SH. Analysis technique for autogenous shrinkage in
high performance concrete with mineral and chemical admixtures. Consr
Build Mater 2012;34(9):110.
[24] Lee HK, Lee KM, Kim BK. Autogenous shrinkage of high performance concrete
containing y ash. Mag Concr Res 2003;55(10):50715.
[25] Zhang MH, Tam CT, Leow MP. Effect of water-to-cementitious materials ratio
and silica fume on the autogenous shrinkage of concrete. Cem Concr Res
2003;33(4):168794.
[26] Lura P, Breugela K, Maruyama I. Effect of curing temperature and type of
cement on early-age shrinkage of high-performance concrete. Cem Concr Res
2001;31(6):186772.
[27] Lura P, Sant G, Weiss WJ. The inuence of temperature on volume changes and
residual stress development in cementitious materials. In: Proceedings of the
2nd international RILEM conference on concrete durability and service life
planning, Haifa, Israel; 2009.
[28] Mehta PK. High-performance, high-volume y ash concrete for Sustainable
development. In: Proceedings of international workshop on sustainable
development and concrete technology, Beijing, China; May 2021, 2004.
[29] Yusuf MO, Johari MAM, et al. Strength and microstructure of alkali-activated
binary blended binder containing palm oil fuel ash and ground blast-furnace
slag. Constr Build Mater 2014;52(2):50410.
[30] Li Q, Li Z, Yuan G. Effects of elevated temperatures on properties of concrete
containing ground granulated blast furnace slag as cementitious material.
Constr Build Mater 2012;35(10):68792.
[31] Philip VH, Belie ND. A service life based global warming potential for highvolume y ash concrete exposed to carbonation. Constr Build Mater
2012;55(3):18393.