Computers and Structures 79 (2001) 163171

www.elsevier.com/locate/compstruc

Thermal analysis of hydration heat in concrete structures with

pipe-cooling system
Jin Keun Kim a,*, Kook Han Kim a, Joo Kyoung Yang b
a

Department of Civil Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, 373-1 Kusong-dong Yusong-gu, Taejon 305-701,
South Korea
b
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Chungwoon University, South Korea
Received 2 April 1999; accepted 15 March 2000

Abstract
The reduction of hydration heat and the prediction of temperature history in massive concrete structures have been
very important problems. In this study, a three-dimensional nite element program for thermal analysis of hydration
heat in concrete structures with pipe cooling system was developed. A line element was adopted for modeling of pipe.
Internal ow theory was applied for calculating the temperature variation of cooling water. The predicted results were
compared with the measured data from the spread concrete footing of the SeoHae Bridge in Korea. The predicted results
showed good agreements with the site measured data. 2000 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The prediction of temperature history due to hydration heat in massive concrete structures is a very dicult
problem. The problem arises from the varying thermal
properties with time and temperature and multiple factors eecting the adiabatic temperature rise curve. The
analysis of a practical method of treating a hydration
heat problem of pipe cooling by circulating cooling water
has been a complex problem. The diculty of simulating
the temperature variation of concrete and the cooling
water has to be resolved for an eective prediction of the
system.
For a thermal analysis of hydration heat in concrete
structures with pipe cooling system, both pseudo threedimensional [1] and three-dimensional nite element
methods [2] have been developed and widely used in recent years. However, pseudo three-dimensional method
is a converted simple two-dimensional analysis method
that cannot correctly apply boundary conditions of atmosphere and cooling water convection. Therefore, the
method is an ineective means of analysis of the prob*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +82-42-869-3602; fax: +82-42869-3610.

lem. An eective three-dimensional method is needed to

correctly analyze the temperature history of concrete
and cooling water.
For an accurate investigation of pipe cooling eect,
the heat balance of inow and outow of cooling water
must be considered. This type of system is called a heat
transfer by internal ow [3].
In previous studies, the eect of heat transfer by internal ow and by cooling water convection can only be
considered by specifying the individual points of pipe
locations and by reducing the solid element volume as
much as the pipe volume [4]. But, the method is inconvenient as the input data for nite element program is
dicult to make and cannot consider the thermal
properties of pipe. These shortcomings can be overcome
by introducing the line element for cooling pipe.
The objective of this paper is to develop a three-dimensional nite element program for thermal analysis of
hydration heat in concrete structures with pipe cooling
system. The line element is implemented in the modeling
of pipe, and an internal ow theory is applied during the
calculation of the temperature variation of cooling water. The reliability of developed program was veried by
comparing the calculated prediction results with the
measured data from the actual concrete spread footing
of the SeoHae Bridge in Korea.

0045-7949/01/$ - see front matter 2000 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 0 4 5 - 7 9 4 9 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 1 2 8 - 0

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J.K. Kim et al. / Computers and Structures 79 (2001) 163171

2. Thermal properties of concrete

hw 4:75u 43:0;

Concrete is a heterogeneous material of which components have dierent thermal properties. Therefore, the
thermal properties of concrete are aected by various
factors, such as types of material used and volume ratios
of aggregate, concrete temperature, water content, porosity, etc. [5,6].

where u is the velocity of cooling water (cm/s). This

equation can be applied within the practical range of u,
i.e., 20 6 u 6 60 cm/s.
3. Finite element formulation
3.1. Equilibrium equation of heat transfer

2.1. Thermal conductivity

The coecient of thermal conductivity of concrete is
dened as an uniform ow of heat through a unit
thickness of material between two faces subjected to a
unit temperature dierence during a unit time. The coecient is inuenced by a unit weight of concrete, a type
of aggregates used and a moisture content of concrete
[7,8]. Generally, a typical value of thermal conductivity
of concrete is in the range 2.152.51 kcal/m h C according to JCI [9], and in the range 1.72.53 kcal/m h C
according to ACI [10].
2.2. Specic heat
The specic heat is a main parameter for the heat
capacity. It is the amount of heat required per unit mass
to change a unit temperature over a small range of
temperature. The specic heat of normal weight concrete
varies only slightly from a type of used aggregate as the
specic heat of most of the rocks have similar mineralogical content. However, the specic heat of cement
paste varies strongly depending on its porosity, water
content, and specimen temperature characteristics.
Therefore, the variation of specic heat of concrete depends on these factors as well [6]. The representative
specic heat value of concrete is in the range 0.270.31
kcal/kg C according to JCI [9], and 0.220.24 kcal/kg C
according to ACI [10].
2.3. Atmosphere and cooling water convection
The degree of heat exchanged by atmosphere convection is determined by a coecient of atmosphere
convection based on the wind velocity. It was reported
that the coecient of atmosphere convection is in the
range 1213 kcal/m2 h C [9], and 811 kcal/m2 h C [11]
when the wind velocity ranges from 2 to 3 m/s.
Ohzawa [9] proposed the coecient of atmosphere
convection, ha , as a function of a wind velocity as
ha 9:60 1:12v;

where v is the wind velocity (m/s).

According to JCI recommendation [9], the coecient
of cooling water convection, hw , depends on the velocity
of cooling water and is expressed as

The eight-node isoparametric solid element introduced by Bathe [12] and Weaver [13] was chosen for the
modeling of concrete. The two-node isoparametric line
element was supplemented to this solid element to implement pipe cooling eect into the analysis.
For nite element formulation of heat transfer [14],
the governing equation of heat conductivity by Fouriers
law are
qi ki

oT
oi

qidi qi

oqi
di
oi

i x; y; z;

where qi is the heat ux per unit time and area, ki , the

coecient of heat conductivity of each direction, and T,
the temperature.
From the equilibrium condition of heat transfer including the internal hydration heat and the heat ux in
Eq. (3), the equilibrium equation of heat transfer is
X o  oT 
4
ki
qB 0;
oi
oi
i
where qB is the internal hydration heat.
3.2. Boundary conditions
The equilibrium equation of heat transfer in Eq. (4)
includes only heat transfer caused by internal hydration
heat and heat conductivity. In order to develop nite
element program that considers the heat convection effect, boundary conditions representing heat transfer
caused by the atmosphere and cooling water needs to be
included. Additionally, the constant temperature condition at prescribed points regardless of elapsed time is also
needed.
The heat ux by atmosphere and cooling water
convection is represented as

oT 
qa kn;a
ha Ta Ts;a
5
on Csa
and
qw kn;w


oT 
hw Tw Ts;w ;
on Csw

where kn;a and kn;w are the coecients of heat conductivity for atmosphere and cooling water in n direction,

J.K. Kim et al. / Computers and Structures 79 (2001) 163171

respectively, where subscript n represents the normal

direction to the convection area. Csa and Csw are the
boundary surfaces with ambient atmosphere and cooling
water, respectively. ha and hw are the coecients of heat
convection for atmosphere and cooling water, respectively. Ta and Tw are the temperatures of atmosphere and
cooling water, respectively. Ts;a and Ts;w are the concrete
temperatures on convection boundary surface of atmosphere and cooling water, respectively.
The constant temperature condition is expressed as
T TA xi ;t;

xi 2 CA ;

where TA is the prescribed temperature value, xi is a

specied point applied on a prescribed temperature at an
arbitrary time t.
3.3. Finite element formulation of heat transfer
By using the variation formulation, the equilibrium
equation of heat transfer in Eq. (4) can be transformed
into the following matrix form
CfT_ g KfT g fQg;

where [C] is the matrix for specic heat capacity, [K] is

the matrix for heat conductivity, and {Q} is the total
heat ux vector for internal hydration heat and heat
convection.
The matrices of [C] and [K], and vector fQg shown in
Eq. (8) are
C C con C pipe ;
K K con K pipe K atm K water ;
fQg fQ

hyd

g fQ

atm

g fQ

water

g:

The matrices and vectors are dened as

Z
C con NT cc qc N dV ;
ZV
pipe
C NT cp qp N dV ;
ZV
con
K BT kc B dV ;
ZV
pipe
K BT kp B dV
ZV
atm
K Ns T ha Ns dS;
ZS
K water Ns T hw Ns dS;
ZS
fQhyd g NT qB dV ;
ZV
atm
fQ g Ns T ha Ta dS;
ZS
water
fQ
g Ns T hw Tw dS;
S

165

where C con and C pipe are the matrices for specic heat
capacity of concrete and pipe, respectively. K con and
K pipe are the matrices for heat conductivity of concrete
and pipe, K atm and K water are the matrices for heat
convection of atmosphere and cooling water. fQhyd g is
the heat ux vector for internal hydration heat. fQatm g
and fQwater g are the heat ux vectors for heat convection
of atmosphere and cooling water. [N] is the matrix for
shape function and [B] is the matrix for derivative of the
shape function with respect to natural coordinates. cc
and cp are the coecients of specic heat for concrete
and pipe. qc andqp are the weights of unit volume for
concrete and pipe. kc and kp are the coecients of heat
conductivity for concrete and pipe. ha and hw are the
coecients of heat convection for atmosphere and
cooling water. qB is the internal hydration heat of unit
volume for concrete. Ta and Tw are the temperatures of
atmosphere and cooling water.
3.4. Connection method of two elements
The eight-node isoparametric solid element and the
two-node isoparametric line element were used for
modeling concrete and pipe, respectively, as shown in
Fig. 1.
As two dierent elements were used for concrete and
pipe, it was necessary to combine these two elements for
the application of Eq. (8). The two nodes of a line element should be identical with any two nodes of eightnode solid element as shown in Fig. 1(c). Therefore, a
line element is located at an edge of or run across a solid
element.

Fig. 1. Connection methods of two elements.

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J.K. Kim et al. / Computers and Structures 79 (2001) 163171

4. Formulation of internal ow
The hydration heat induced concrete temperature
variation is controlled by circulating the cooling water
through thin-walled pipes embedded in concrete. The
outlet temperature of cooling water is mostly higher
than the inlet temperature as the hydration heat of
concrete is absorbed by the cooling water. This phenomenon is called heat transfer by internal ow. To
calculate the temperature of cooling water at each point,
the energy conservation principle, which means that the
heat supplied to pipe is equal to the heat absorbed by the
owing water, is introduced. In general, the analytical
procedures of heat transfer with internal ow are shown
in Fig. 2.
There are two methods to determine the coecient of
cooling water convection: One way to solve is the differential governing equation based on the theoretical
procedure. The other is to utilize the equation obtained
by tting experimental data. The procedures of using the
dierential governing equation are listed below.
(1) Check whether the owing water in pipe is laminar or turbulent by using Reynold's number. (2) Calculate the hydrodynamic entry length, where the speed
of owing water is unevenly distributed. (3) Calculate
the thermal entry length, where the temperature of
owing water is not constant. (4) Using the hydrodynamic and thermal entry lengths, obtain the thermal
equilibrium zone. (5) Calculate the coecient of cooling
water convection at the thermal equilibrium zone by
using the dierential governing equation [3].
Although the dierential equation method is based
on a sound theoretical foundation, it is very complicated
for solving practical problems. There are three main
diculties in implementing this method for the analysis
of concrete structure with pipe-cooling systems: First,
the coecient of cooling water convection continuously
diers in a large magnitude along the pipe whether

owing water is laminar or turbulent. Second, a roughness of pipe surface and a pipe cross-section conguration must be considered in the calculation. Finally, the
method is only applicable when the temperatures of the
pipe surface locations between owing water-inner pipe
and concrete-outer pipe are kept constant without
delayed eect. Therefore, the experimentally derived
equation (Eq. (2)) was used to calculate the coecient of
cooling water convection in this study.
As shown in Fig. 2, if the coecient of cooling water
convection has been selected, then the temperature of
cooling water at each point is calculated from the energy
conservation principle. The procedure is further explained by using the concept representation of energy
conservation principle as shown in Fig. 3.
The heat supplied to pipe per unit time(qsupply ) is
calculated by Newton's cooling law:
qsupply hw Aw Ts;average Tw;average


Ts;in Ts;out Tw;in Tw;out
hw pDl

;
2
2

10

where, hw is the coecient of cooling water convection,

Aw , the surface area of pipe, D, the diameter of pipe, l,
the distance between inlet and outlet, Ts;in and Ts;out
represent the temperatures of pipe at inlet and outlet,
and Tw;in and Tw;out represent the temperatures of cooling
water at inlet and outlet, respectively.
The heat cooled by cooling water per unit time(qcool )
is
qcool qcool;out qcool;in Qw qw cw Tw;out Tw;in ;

11

where Qw is the inow volume of water per unit time, qw ,

the unit weight of water, and cw , the specic heat of
water.
According to the energy conservation principle, Eq.
(10) is equivalent to Eq. (11). Hence, if three temperature Ts;in ; Ts;out ; Tw;in are known, the unknown temperature Tw;out can be calculated as
Tw;out

C1 C2 Tw;in C2 Ts;in Ts;out

;
C1 C2

12

where C1 Qw qw cw , C2 hw pDl=2.

Fig. 2. Analytical procedure of internal ow.

Fig. 3. Concept diagram of energy conservation principle.

J.K. Kim et al. / Computers and Structures 79 (2001) 163171

167

To apply Eqs. (10) and (11), four assumptions must

be satised: (1) the cooling water is an incompressible
liquid, (2) the thermal conductivity of cooling water is
extremely small in the radial direction of a pipe, (3)
variations in kinematics and potential energy are extremely small, (4) only variations in heat energy and
owing work exist at cooling water, particularly, the
owing work is fully consumed by the ow of cooling
water.

5. Results and discussion

5.1. Modeling of spread footing
The spread footing, a location where the temperature
history due to hydration heat has been measured, is a
reinforced concrete structure placed on rock foundation
[15]. The footing was cast with two lifts and the heights
of the rst and second lifts were 2 m. The selected geometrical layout is illustrated in Fig. 4. In this gure, the
dimensions of rock are considered as 31  42  6 m3 to
simulate the eect of heat transfer from placing concrete
on a rock. The layout of pipe loop located to the center
of rst lift is shown in Fig. 4(b), where the horizontal
spacing of pipe is 1.2 m.
Footing and pipe loop were modeled as shown in Fig.
5 by using eight-node isoparametric solid element and
two-node isoparametric line element, respectively.
The temperature gradient of rock is smaller than that
of the placed concrete. Thus, the placed concrete was
measured more nely than the rock. Each line element

Fig. 4. Layout of footing and pipe.

was numbered along the ow direction of cooling water

to consider the eects of internal ow. Hence, the total

Fig. 5. Finite element mesh.

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J.K. Kim et al. / Computers and Structures 79 (2001) 163171

Fig. 6. Comparison of analyzed and measured points (section

A).

numbers of solid and line element of this nite element

meshes were 32,688 and 428, respectively, and the total
number of nodes was 38,067.
The measured temperatures were compared with the
predicted results at section A. As shown in Fig. 6, the
locations of temperature sensors were not exactly in
accordance with node points except point d. The initial
temperature of placed concrete was 31C, and the temperatures at upper and lower plane of rock were
assumed to be 32C and 28C, respectively. The temperature distribution of rock was also assumed to vary
linearly with depth.
5.2. Properties of material
The adiabatic temperature rise curve of the concrete
obtained with the calorimeter equipment is shown in
Fig. 7. The maximum temperature K was 47.0C , the
reaction rate 
a was 1.3, and the delayed time was 0.1
day.
Table 1 gives the thermal properties of rock, placed
concrete, and pipe. In order to investigate the eect of
cooling pipe, thermal properties of coolant, as given in
Table 2, were used. During the pipe cooling, the inlet
temperatures were in the range 2128C, whereas the
volumes of cooling water varied in the range 0.91.2 m3 /
h. Thus, the mean values were used in this numerical

Fig. 7. Adiabatic temperature rise curve.

analysis, i.e., the inlet temperature of cooling water was

25C, and the volume of cooling water was 1.08 m3 /h
which corresponded to the velocity of cooling water of
60 cm/s.
5.3. Comparison between measured and analyzed results
The temperature histories of concrete at section A
due to the hydration heat are presented in Fig. 8(a)(d).
The gures show that the temperature of concrete with
pipe cooling decreases more rapidly than without pipe
cooling. This trend is much more apparent at point
b which is a close location to cooling pipe. The reduction of concrete temperature is larger at points b and d
than at points a and c due to these points near proximity
to the cooling pipe. The reduction of concrete temperature at points a and c is mainly attributed to the atmosphere convection and heat dispersion to rock,
respectively.
The temperature of point a adjacent to atmosphere is
highest at 24th hour, and the temperature histories of
numerical and measured results in Fig. 8(a) have similar
trends.

Table 1
Thermal properties of materials

Rock
Placing concrete
Pipe

Thermal conductivity
(kcal/m h C)

Specic heat (kcal/

kg C)

Density (kg/m3 )

Atmosphere convectivity (kcal/m2 h C)

1.9
2.5
60.0

0.22
0.27
0.16

2500
2350
7800

9.0
9.0

Cement content 363 kg/m3 ; 28 day cylinder strength 248 kg/cm2 and water:cement:sand:gravel ratio 0.52:1:2.03:2.73 by weight.

J.K. Kim et al. / Computers and Structures 79 (2001) 163171

Table 2
Properties of pipe for internal ow
Coecient of water convection (kcal/
m2 h C)
Volume (m3 /h)
Velocity (m/s)
Inlet temperature (C)
Unit weight (kg/m3 )
Specic heat (kcal/kg C)
Thermal conductivity (kcal/m h C)
Section area (m2 )
Diameter of pipe (m)

328
1.08
0.6
25
1000
1.0
0.554
0.00008
0.0254

169

The eectiveness of pipe cooling is clearly shown in

the temperature history at point b which is close to
cooling pipe as shown in Fig. 8(b). The predicted and
measured results show a similar trend. However, the
trends after peak have some discrepancies, because the
temperature of cooling water at inlet had not been kept
constant and the point b was not exactly in accordance
with the measured point.
At point c which is in contact with rock, the measured peak temperature is higher than the predicted one
by 2C. The reason for this deviation is that the point
where the temperature sensor was embedded was not
exactly on the surface of rock, where as the analytical
point was exactly on the surface of rock.

Fig. 8. Temperature history of concrete at section A.

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J.K. Kim et al. / Computers and Structures 79 (2001) 163171

Fig. 9. Prole of concrete temperature at section B.

Fig. 10. Prole of concrete temperature at section C.

The highest peak temperature occurred at point d.

The point d is located on the centerline of the section
and is far from the cooling pipe. From Fig. 8(d), the
ascending part and peak values are in good agreements.
However, in descending part of the graph, some discrepancies are observed.
The proles of temperature through the depth at
sections B and C in Fig. 6 are shown in Figs. 9 and 10,
respectively. It can be seen that the reduction of temperature due to pipe cooling is much more obvious at
section B.
The temperature change of cooling water is shown in
Fig. 11. In the analysis, the temperature of cooling water
at inlet was assumed to be 25C. The results show that
the analytical method predicts the temperature variation
of cooling water. Fig. 12 shows the relationship between
the temperature of cooling water at inlet and outlet. The
result indicates that the temperature increase of cooling
water is well estimated. The results show that the internal ow theory introduced in this study can eectively
simulate the actual problem.

Fig. 11. Temperature of cooling water at each point.

J.K. Kim et al. / Computers and Structures 79 (2001) 163171

171

neering Critical Technology and National Research

Laboratory programs).

References

Fig. 12. Inlet and outlet temperatures of cooling water.

6. Conclusions
A three-dimensional nite element program for
thermal analysis of hydration heat in concrete structures
with pipe cooling system was developed. Internal ow
theory with a line element for modeling of pipe is implemented into the analysis method to calculate the
temperature variation of cooling water.
From the comparison between the predicted and
measured results in the spread footing with pipe cooling
system, the developed three-dimensional nite element
program eectively predicts the temperature history of
concrete. And the temperature variation of cooling water is eciently obtained by introducing internal ow
theory and line element.
It is possible to apply the developed program to
thermal analysis of hydration heat with pipe cooling
system regardless of the pipe layout, the cooling water
velocity and inlet temperature, and the thermal properties of concrete and cooling pipe.
Acknowledgements
The authors are pleased to acknowledge the nancial
support for this research by Korea Institute of Science &
Technology Evaluation and Planning (KISTEP) (Engi-

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