Fatal Factor for Durability: Drying Shrinkage - The Issues and Discussion of Modern Concrete Science - page 144

Fig. 11.14 Compared effect of adjacent concrete boards

lividity fine aggregates were exposed to surface, making surface color appear to be

black, while drying shrinkage crack was more easily created in thicker parts, as
shown in Fig. 11.14.

11.4 Ending Words

All in all, detriments of drying shrinkage crack on concrete flexural strength is

getting more and more serious in these years, which is a huge threat to structural
security and durability of constructional elements that are in open air. However, few
researches have been conducted on drying shrinkage issue by concrete academia in
the past, making the problem fails to draw adequate concern.
To sum up, drying shrinkage is one of the basic characteristics of concrete.
Drying shrinkage phenomenon is inevitable for any concrete structures that are
exposed to sunshine no matter in China or all over the world. But as circumstances
and concrete resistance to drying shrinkage are different, seriousness are diverse.
Drying shrinkage has decreased

flexural strength of concrete structure dramatically,
directly threatening stress security and service life of structure. Seriousness of
drying shrinkage has controlled service life and durability of structure and is
regarded as

“ ”

of durability especially in arid and desert regions.
However, the most terrible question is that we have not taken effect of this point on
stress security into consideration when making structure design.

“first natural enemy