Restrained cracking failure behavior of concrete due to temperature and shrinkage

Abstract The failure behavior of restrained cracking induced by temperature and/or shrinkage differs from that of direct tensile failure. To study the restrained cracking behavior and criterion, a self-developed temperature stress testing machine (TSTM) was utilized and found to have good performance when examining concentric deformation and reproducibility. Restrained cracking experiments were performed considering different mixtures, temperature histories, shrinkages, and loading ages. The results indicated that concrete would crack when the restrained tensile stress exceeded 76% of the direct tensile strength, while the failure strain was 103%–137% of the tensile strain capacity. A combined stress–strain failure criterion was proposed under the assumption of linearity, and the prediction errors range from −7.61% to 12.89%. The proposed criterion will aid evaluations of the safety of restrained concrete.