Early Age Cracking Control in Semimassive Walls of RC Tanks by Internal Cooling
Publication: Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 35, Issue 4
Abstract
Semimassive tanks must satisfy the requirement of watertightness, so all attempts to reduce early-age imposed strains lead to considerable financial savings. The impact of a cooling pipe system (CPS) on a reinforced concrete (RC) tank wall where early-age cracks developed during construction has been analyzed. It has been proven that for RC tanks, the factor that contributes most to tensile stresses in the semimassive walls is the mean temperature of the maturing concrete. The second most influential factor is derived from self-stresses, and the least influential factor is the stress gradient. The calculations of self-stresses indicate that the use of a CPS leads to the formation of favorable compressive rather than tensile stresses in the central part of the wall. Most importantly, a CPS in RC tank walls significantly reduces the width of cracks that result from the cumulative effect of early-age and long-term imposed strains. The performed analysis provides a basis for the effective design of a CPS in RC tank semimassive walls.
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Data Availability Statement
All data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the published article.
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Published In
Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 35 • Issue 4 • August 2021
Copyright
© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 28, 2020
Accepted: Dec 29, 2020
Published online: Apr 20, 2021
Published in print: Aug 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Sep 20, 2021
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