Effect of pressure developed by water freezing in hollows on cracking of slabs

Abstract

There are frequent cases when load-bearing reinforced concrete structures of not completed buildings are directly exposed to precipitation (rainfall, snowfall) and to environment of positive and negative temperature. Multihollowcore concrete slabs are especially vulnerable to such actions since investigations of condition of nonconserved buildings indicate that these slabs can crack critically. Water accumulated in hollows of slabs and frozen at negative temperature can split concrete in vertical walls between hollows, inflict concrete cracking below hollows or spalling off large sections together with longitudinal reinforcement in them at the bottom of slabs. In performed investigations of condition of non-completed and non-conserved load bearing structures a modern method was employed for determination of cracking in walls between hollows of slabs, using mini video-camera.[...].