Shrinkage and mechanical properties of high-performance self-compacting concrete and mortar subjected to drying: a comparative analysis - Yurtdas, I.; Burlion ,N.; Shao ,J.F.; and Li, A. (European Journal of Environmental and Civil Engineering, 2025)
The hygro-mechanical behaviour of high-performance self-compacting concrete and its equivalent mortar was compared during drying to identify the main differences between them. The experimental results obtained highlight that the air- and oven-drying shrinkages of mortar are of similar evolution to and higher than those of concrete and the oven-drying accelerates and rises the shrinkage. There is no significant effect of aggregate content and size on the drying process. The slightly lower increase of concrete strength in air-drying compared to mortar is accentuated in oven-drying owing to its higher micro-cracking level. However, the bending strength first decreases drastically in the same proportions regardless of the material and drying conditioning mode because of drying-induced micro-cracking. Then, it increases, slightly more for air-dried mortar than air- and oven-dried concrete, remaining lower than the bending strength at a water-saturated state. This beneficial strengthening effect leads the bending strength of oven-dried mortar to overtake that of water-saturated mortar. The presence of coarse aggregates which conditions the impact of drying-induced micro-cracking, accentuated by rapid drying, plays a major role in the differences between the global behaviour of the two materials although they have similar mechanical properties before the drying process.
_eprint: https://doi.org/10.1080/19648189.2024.2439867
Keywords: journalArticle; High-performance concrete and mortar; bending strength; compressive strength; drying shrinkage; micro-cracking