Evaluating Drying Shrinkage of Self-Compacting Concrete in a Caisson Using Numerical Methods

Self-Compacting Concrete (SCC), characterized by the high flowability and high resistance to segregation, is due to the high amount of paste (including cement and mineral admixtures) in contrast with normal concrete (NC). However, the high amount of paste will limit the volume fractions of coarse aggregate and reduce tendency of coarse aggregate to suppress drying shrinkage deformations. For this reason, SCC can be expected to produce higher values of drying shrinkage than NC. In order to assess the drying shrinkage of SCC quantitatively for application to offshore caisson foundations, the formulas presented in this paper are used to predict the values of drying shrinkage in SCC according to the corresponding mixture proportioning. Additionally, a finite element (FE) model, which assumes concrete to be a homogeneous and isotropic material and follows the actual size and environmental conditions of the caisson, is utilized to simulate situations of stress distribution and deformations in the SCC caisson resulting from the drying shrinkage. The likelihood of cracking and the behavior of drying shrinkage of the SCC caisson are drawn from the analytic results calculated by the FE model proposed in this paper.