Early-Age Cracking of Self-Consolidating Concrete with Lightweight and Normal Aggregates

Lightweight self-consolidating concrete (LSCC) is an attractive construction material combining the benefits of self-consolidating and lightweight concrete. The material is especially beneficial for structures in which reduced load and ease of construction among dense reinforcement are needed. While a great potential for lightweight self-consolidating concrete exists, the material’s shrinkage and cracking susceptibility has not been characterized in detail up to date. As such, in this work, laboratory evaluation of LSCC using restrained ring test was conducted. The results showed that the combination of natural and lightweight aggregates resulted in the mixture least susceptible to restrained shrinkage cracking (cracking noted at 6.6 days), compared with all-natural (cracking at 3.0 days) or lightweight aggregates (cracking at 4.6 days). Additionally, the Monte Carlo method was used to develop a model capable of predicting likelihood of cracking in LSCC. The results of the simulations showed good agreement with the restrained ring test results.