Temperature control of immature concrete is a very important aspect in concrete technology for avoiding internal cracking due to higher temperatures and temperature gradients, for minimizing cracking due to drying shrinkage.
Monitoring of Early Age Temperature of Concrete by Mockup Test
Generally, before starting the concrete work of a project, a concrete test cube is cast and the variation of the temperature and highest temperature study to take necessary actions to avoid issue rises due to the higher temperature and temperature gradients. In addition, adequacy of the type of formwork to be used and whether any modification required for the formwork is also can be decided in the test Depending on the scale of the project, size of the cube to be cast is decided by the senior engineers or they follow the project specification.
Normal practice is to case cube sizes around 1m x 1m x 1m or 2m x 2m x 2m. However, the size of the test block depends solely on the consultants on the project and the type of elements to be cast.
Thermometers are installed in the middle of the test block and near the surface. Sometimes, the additional thermometer is installed between the middle and the surface. Depending on the results received from the test, decisions are taken to proceed with the concreting works.
Refer to other posts in this blog for limiting values of temperature and other parameters.