Cracks that occur before hardening, primarily due to settlement, construction movements, and excessive evaporation of water, are called plastic cracks. Plastic cracking can be predominantly eliminated through close attention to the mixture design, material placement, and curing. Cracks that occur after the concrete has hardened may be due to a variety of reasons. These cracks may be due to mechanical loading, moisture and thermal gradients, chemical reactions of incompatible materials (e.g., alkali-aggregate reactions) or environmental loading (e.g. freezing of water in unsound aggregate or paste). Table 1 provides a summary of cracks due to environmental conditions, and discusses when they are most likely to occur. As civil engineers begin the process of rehabilitating more infrastructure elements and simulating long-term performance of the infrastructure using computer models, it is more critical than ever that they have a good understanding of the impact of cracks on performance. The role cracks play in the performance of transportation structures is somewhat controversial however.
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