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The drying shrinkage of concrete is analogous to the mechanism of drying of timber specimen. The loss of free water contained in hardened concrete, does not result in any appreciable dimension change. It is the loss of water held in gel pores that causes the change in the volume.
Aggregates typically make up about 60 to 75 percent of the volume of a concrete mixture, and as they are the least expensive of the materials used in concrete, the economic impact is measurable. In addition, the use of aggregates provides volume stability to the hardened concrete. The shrinkage potential of a cement paste is quite high when compared to the aggregates. Controlling shrinkage of the concrete material is important since shrinkage and cracking potential increase together.