Contribution to the modeling of the short-term behavior of cured concrete in hot weather

Several problems result from concrete in hot weather, especially excessive water evaporation rate at early age, which induces plastic shrinkage, then results in cracks and mechanical characteristics of concrete will reduce. It is primoradial to know in advance concrete behavior at this critical type. Therefore, simulating the behavior of concrete in the short term in hot weather will allow us to predict these problems, especially plastic shrinkage. This study aims to determine of normal concrete (w/c = 0.35 , Portland cement with limestone NA 442, calcareous crushed sand ) at an early age, precisely in the first 24 hours of a mini-slab (27 × 21 × 1.5 cm³) under a hot simulated weather (temperature 55°C, air velocity 2.1 m/s and relative humidity 13%) by experimental study and numeric simulation, which consists of the simulation of the experimental study using COMSOL software. The results showed that the temperature and humidity distribution are different along the mini-slab; also, the numerical simulation results converge to the experimental results. The numerical simulation allowed us to know the exact time the beginning of cracking.