From the course: Construction Management: Concrete Construction
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What causes cracking
From the course: Construction Management: Concrete Construction
What causes cracking
- We just reviewed one major reason that concrete cracks, and that had to do with an outside force being applied to it and trying to bend it. But there's another reason that concrete cracks. Remember, that if a force tries to pull the concrete apart, the concrete's going to crack when the stresses caused by that force exceed the concrete's tensile strength. Now, besides those external forces, there's also more of an internal force in the concrete, working to pull it apart. And that is that concrete shrinks. Over time, and especially during that first seven days where the hydration process is really running, and then in the next 28 days where it's still running, but it's winding down a little bit. Some of that water is being used up in the process, and some of that water is leaving the concrete. And the concrete undergoes a measurable volume change. It shrinks and there's really very little we can do about it. It's just part of the process. Hydration starts, water gets used up, the…
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