Estudio térmico-tensional de grandes volúmenes de hormigón frente a la acción del calor de fraguado

Temperature and stress distributions in massive concrete structures due to heat of dehydratation

In this paper a theoretical and experimental study about temperature and stress distributions included in massive concrete structures during hardening process is presented. Measurements of temperature in several in several points of concrete blocks in cuasi-adiabatic and non-adiabatic conditions have been carried out. a comparison between experimental and analytical results allow to determine the evolution of hydratyon heat of concrete. The analytical model developed, capable to predict temperature stress distributions, is based on 3-D finite element method. The results derived from thermal and structures analyses show that the temperature distributions within massive concrete structures are strongly nonlinear. Due to this fact, significant stresses might appear at the external surface of the structure during the hardening process, which can exceed the value of the tensile strength of concrete.