Assessment and prediction of drying shrinkage cracking in bonded mortar overlays

•Parameter study on material characteristics influencing overlay cracking.•Analytical model gives good quantitative indication of overlay cracking.•Ring test presents good qualitative indication of overlay cracking.•Curing duration has little effect on overlay cracking.

Restrained drying shrinkage cracking was investigated on composite beams consisting of substrate concrete and bonded mortar overlays, and compared to the performance of the same mortars when subjected to the ring test. Stress development and cracking in the composite specimens were analytically modeled and predicted based on the measurement of relevant time-dependent material properties such as drying shrinkage, elastic modulus, tensile relaxation and tensile strength. Overlay cracking in the composite beams could be very well predicted with the analytical model. The ring test provided a useful qualitative comparison of the cracking performance of the mortars. The duration of curing was found to only have a minor influence on crack development. This was ascribed to the fact that prolonged curing has a beneficial effect on tensile strength at the onset of stress development, but is in the same time not beneficial to the values of tensile relaxation and elastic modulus.