Design of reinforced concrete structures in the early stages of construction taking into account heat dissipation of concrete

Foundation slabs and other massive reinforced concrete structures in the process of their construction experience temperature effects as a result of heat release during concrete hardening. In combination with variable environmental conditions there is an uneven distribution of temperatures in the massive structures thickness, which can cause cracks in the process of concrete strengthening. The heat of concrete is mainly influenced by several factors: the cement specific content, type of cement, water-cement ratio etc. Numerical methods provide the most complete way to estimate thermally stressed state of structures. This paper suggests method of 3-D temperature field calculation for temperature regime estimation of the most typical cast in place reinforced concrete structures (foundation slabs). The influence of sample size, ambient temperature and thermal insulation parameters of the samples outer faces was studied. The program for the ANSYS is developed, which allows estimating the temperature regime of reinforced concrete structures at the early stages of concrete hardening. (paper)