Re
cent experien
ces have shown that thermal–
shrinkage cra
cks in reinfor
ced
con
crete walls are a
common phenomenon. The
cra
cks appear above the joint between the wall and the foundation at the
constru
ction phase of these stru
ctural members. This problem affe
cts, among the others, bridge abutments, retaining walls, tank walls and radiation prote
ction shields, in whi
ch
cra
cking is highly undesirable due to tightness requirements. Predi
ction of the early-age thermal and
shrinkage effe
cts is not an easy task be
cause of the
complexity of the issue and a large number of
contributing te
chnologi
cal and material fa
ctors de
ciding about the magnitude and
chara
cter of early-age volume
changes.
This paper presents a complete analytical model for determination of hardening temperature, shrinkage deformations and thermal–shrinkage stresses in early stages of hardening of reinforced concrete walls cast against previously executed foundation. As a basis for the model development, numerical analysis of 39 walls was performed in which the analysed walls had various dimensions and were made of concretes with different types of cements and aggregates. A calculation method for determination of stresses proposed by Eurocode 2 is also referred.