Internal curing of high-performance concrete with pre-soaked fine lightweight aggregate for prevention of autogenous shrinkage cracking

The effectiveness of internal curing (IC) to reduce autogenous shrinkage cracking in high-performance concrete (HPC) was investigated using different levels of internal curing on four pairs of large-size prismatic HPC specimens tested simultaneously under free and restrained shrinkage. Internal curing was supplied by pre-soaked fine lightweight aggregate (LWA) as a partial replacement to regular sand. It was found that the use of 178 kg/m³ of saturated LWA in HPC, providing 27 kg/m³ of IC water, eliminated the tensile stress due to restrained autogenous shrinkage without compromising the early-age strength and elastic modulus of HPC. It was shown that the risk of concrete cracking could be conservatively estimated from the extent of free shrinkage strain occurring after the peak expansion strain that may develop at very early ages. Autogenous expansion, observed during the first day for high levels of internal curing, can significantly reduce the risk of cracking in concrete structures, as both the elastic and creep strains develop initially in compression, enabling the tensile strength to increase further before tensile stresses start to initiate later.