Shrinkage cracking law and anti-crack inverse design in early-age concrete: A novel perspective on the development of crack resistance properties

Abstract

Early-age cracking in massive concrete has long attracted research focus, essentially governed by the game between crack driving and resistance. However, cracking resistance aspect received inadequate attention. This study examines the impact of crack resistance properties development processes on shrinkage cracking law in early-age concrete, employing chemo-thermo-mechanical coupling phase-field model. Two quantitative evaluation indicators, namely the index of damage development and average growth rate of maximum damage, are introduced to characterize the process of damage and cracking. The findings demonstrate that the development processes of elastic modulus and tensile strength exert a considerable influence on shrinkage cracking process in early-age concrete, whereas the impact of fracture energy development process is insignificant. Multifactor analysis revealed substantial coupling effects among parameters. Additionally, an anti-crack reverse design method is proposed based on the global optimization analysis, which can guide the optimization design of shrinkage crack prevention and control in early-age concrete from both perspectives of crack driving and crack resistance.