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Non Structural Crack

1) The Civil and Structural Engineering Technical Division (CSETD) organized an evening talk on non-structural cracking in concrete. 2) The speaker, Prof. Steve Garrity with over 41 years of experience, discussed that concrete is brittle and has low tensile strength, making it susceptible to cracking. 3) Prof. Steve outlined different types of non-structural cracks including plastic cracks during concrete curing and cracks due to chemical reactions or restraint deformation. He stressed the importance of proactive measures to minimize cracking.

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Asyraf Zailudin
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198 views

Non Structural Crack

1) The Civil and Structural Engineering Technical Division (CSETD) organized an evening talk on non-structural cracking in concrete. 2) The speaker, Prof. Steve Garrity with over 41 years of experience, discussed that concrete is brittle and has low tensile strength, making it susceptible to cracking. 3) Prof. Steve outlined different types of non-structural cracks including plastic cracks during concrete curing and cracks due to chemical reactions or restraint deformation. He stressed the importance of proactive measures to minimize cracking.

Uploaded by

Asyraf Zailudin
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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CIVIL AND STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING TECHNICAL DIVISION,

JURUTERA ONLINE IEM

Report on Non-structural crack in concrete: What codes of practice


don’t (can’t) tell you
By Ir. Low Kai Wah

Ir. Low Kai Wah is currently the Deputy Chairman in the Civil and Structural
Engineering Technical Division (CSETD).

The Civil and Structural Engineering Technical Division (CSETD) had successfully organized an evening talk
on 7th August 2018 titled “Non-structural cracking in concrete: What codes of practice don’t (cannot) tell
you”. The talk was held at Auditorium of Tan Sri Prof Ching Fung Kee, Wisma IEM and the invited
distinguished speaker was Prof. Steve Garrity, who has over 41 years of experience in public and private
sector. He was last attached as academician with University of Leeds.

The talk was chaired by Ir. Dr. Ng Soon Chin and was attended by 101 participants. The participants consist
a pool of professionals from different industries background ranging from practising consultants,
contracting firm, Authorities, academician and students.

Prof. Steve outlined four (4) main topics in his presentation mainly:-
1) Setting the sene.
2) Non-structural cracking.
3) Action (before, during and after construction.)
4) Summary & Lessons.

Prof. Steve stressed that everyone has a role to


play in controlling crack. Concrete relatively has
good compressive strength but lack of tensile
strength. It is brittle material with very little
ductility.

The speaker remind that tensile strength of


concrete is very low during the first few
hours/days so it is very susceptible to crack within
this critical period. In order to minimise the crack
we can either: 1) reduce or avoid tensile stress
that will occur on concrete or 2) increase the Prof. Steve delivering his note
tensile strength of concrete by increasing the
concrete resistance to cracking.

Prof. Steve highlighted to the audience that EC2


had acknowledged cracking is normal in concrete
structures as it is subjected to bending, shear,
torsion, and tension resulted from either direct
loading or imposed deformations. The speaker
further explained that direct loading usually will
yield structural cracks whereas cracks caused by
imposed deformations normally will be non-
structural crack. The speaker highlighted that BS
Simple illustration of tensile stress yielding
EN 1992-1-1 : 2004 does not provide sufficient
concrete crack.
guidance on calculating crack width due to
restrained imposed deformation but is fully
covered with CIRIA C660. However, the design
data used in CIRIA C660 is based on UK ambient
conditions, cementitious material and data from a
wide range of UK aggregates.

Prof. Steve than further exhibits some common


form of non-structural cracks that are not caused
by applied loading. He explained that plastic
cracking is the most common cracks that consist
of plastic settlement cracks than usually occurs
during concrete bleeding because tensile stresses Simple illustration type of failure that creates
tends to develop in wet concrete caused by
crack
obstructions to bleed movement. Another form of
plastic cracking is plastic shrinkage crack that are
vulnerable to thin slabs.

Simple illustration of plastic settlement crack Simple illustration of plastic shrinkage crack

Further on cracks may develop due to expansive chemical reactions such as sulphate attack and alkali-
silica reaction (ASR). Non-structural cracks may also develop due to restraint deformation as the concrete
contracts/shrinks and is restrained from doing so.

Prof. Steve presented that to minimise plastic


cracks, the designer can adopt cohesive mix
design whereby the mixes will tend to have low
bleed. Site engineer need to have adequate
experience so that he/she is aware of plastic
cracks possibility and conduct visual inspection on
poured concrete regularly for sign of plastic
cracking and possibly re-vibrate or re-float the
concrete surface or use cement rich slurry into the
hardening concrete.
Simple illustration of restrained deformation
Good engineering practice is required to control cracks
cracks due to expansive reaction in hardened
concrete. Aggregate sources need to be verify to
minimise the risk of ASR. Chemical analysis of soil
and underground water need to be perform to
identify the severity of exposure will be beneficial.

As for control cracking due to restrained


deformation, it is common to provide extra steel
reinforcement to counter the tensile stresses and
to distribute the tensile strains. Alternatively,
introducing movement joint will reduce the
degree of restraints thus will result the need of
smaller area of steel. Nevertheless, using low heat
of hydration cement and control thermal gradient
within the concrete will also help.

Prof Steve remind the audience that it is


important to be proactive to minimise or control
the crack rather than being reactive at later stage
as the repair and strengthening work will be costly
and timely.

At the end of the session, the Q&A session was


lively as enthusiastic audience poured CSETD Chairman, Ir. Chong presenting memento
questionnaires to the speaker and were answered to Prof. Steve
by speaker diligently. The talk ended with CSETD
Chairman presented a token of appreciation to
Prof. Steve.

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