# Early-Age Cracking in Concrete: Causes, Consequences, Remedial Measures, and Recommendations
## 4 Factors Affecting Early-Age Cracking
### Construction Procedures  
Formwork is one of the important components which influence the cracking behavior of early-age concrete. The choice of the formwork can alter the risk of early-age cracking by changing the heat exchange length and structure's surface to volume ratio [39]. The risk of the early-age cracking of concrete elements can increase due to increasing heat exchange length when the structural surface to volume ratio decreases. Also, the formwork material properties (especially conductivity) and the length of removal time play important roles in the cracking of concrete. Although the increased conductivity of formwork materials reduces the cracking risk at the casting stage, it increases the cracking risk later after demolding [42]. Therefore, the formwork material should be chosen carefully with special attention given to its conductivity. The removal time of formwork also needs to be optimized to control the early-age cracking in concrete. The sequence of concrete placement should be planned properly to avoid the thermal dilation effect in concrete elements. The difference in temperature due to concrete placing sequence, formwork, insulation, cooling, neighboring structures, and other factors has a paramount effect on the temperature drop during the cooling phase. Hence, there exists the potential for contraction of the maturing concrete [9]. The consistency of hardening concrete may influence the risk of damage due to internal or external vibration. Several studies have highlighted that re-vibration could improve the compressive strength [58; 59], but it has also been reported that vibration during the critical concrete age may cause external stress exceeding the strength of concrete [60]. Therefore, [PERSON] and [PERSON] [61] recommended the appropriate vibration speed according to the maturity condition for traditional concrete. The other type of concrete, such as high-strength concrete, should be studied accordingly to determine the effect of vibration. In addition, the effect of blasting work close to the construction site should not be ignored. [PERSON] and [PERSON] [62] concluded that the vibration from blasting should be avoided for fresh concrete, but the vibration limit can be increased with the increase in hardening age. The researchers [35; 36] also pointed out that the different construction factors, such as casting sequence, supporting structure, construction equipment, the weight of the concrete deck section poured, and the weight of the construction team, formwork, and mobile construction equipment have an effect on the concrete structure. However, the vibration from the surroundings during construction, such as pile driving [63] and working coal mill [64], does not affect the compressive strength of concrete, but [PERSON] and [PERSON] [62] stated that concrete age, distance, and the type of ground are the major factors, depending on which pile driving could be a problematic issue. Curing is another critical factor that greatly influences the occurrence of the early-age cracking in concrete. [PERSON] et al. [42] reported that curing temperature and the temperature of fresh concrete are the two major causes of the early-age cracking in concrete. [PERSON] et al. [65] studied the effect of curing temperature on the early-age cracking behavior of high-performance concrete. They reported that the autogenous shrinkage and subsequent cracking in high-performance concrete increase with increasing curing temperature. A curing temperature of 20 \({}^{\circ}\)C was reported as the optimum curing temperature for high-performance concrete to mitigate early-age cracking. Later, they also studied the influence of water-to-cement ratio on the early-age cracking resistance of high-performance concrete [66]. They concluded that the early-age cracking potential of high-performance concrete increases with a decrease in water-to-cement ratio that causes a greater temperature rise.