Monitoring of the concrete setting with an automatic method

Early age deformations of concrete are involved in cracking which can lead to service life reduction. Early age autogenous shrinkage of concrete can be measured with a newly developed test rig (BTJADE). The setting time, t0, must be known in order to initialize the deformations measured by this apparatus. The determination of the concrete setting is more difficult than for cement pastes or mortars. It appears, in the literature, that ultrasonic methods are good candidates for this purpose