• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.164-172
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• 2008

The heat of hydration for early aged mass concrete induces high temperature with the hydration. Control of the temperature difference across a section is an effective strategy to minimize the hydration heat induced cracks for the structures where internal restraint is dominant. The current prevention methods for hydration cracking show some limitations for the control of thermal gradients, and these limitations could make micro and macro cracks in surface and core of concrete. Especially cooling methods can decrease the increasing hydration temperature, but it can not prevent the problem while decreasing temperature. Consequently heating pipes are added simultaneously with the cooling pipes in order to control the temperature gradients between core and surface of the concrete, followed by the finite element analysis (FEA). Based on the FEA, the proposed method using cooling pipe and heating pipes together has been found to be an effective alternative in thermal gradient control, in terms of controlling temperature induced cracks significantly.