The cracking risk in walls depends mostly on the temperature change during cooling, ΔTM (which can be a

sum of the actual temperature change and equivalent temperature change due to shrinkage), thermal gradient at the
thickness of the wall, ΔTS, and the degree of restraint which can be expressed with a restraint
factor, R.
Since the restraint factor depends mainly on geometrical characteristics of the element and is a known value, the
design and – especially – execution and curing of the wall should concentrate on limitation of the temperature
change in the following way

ΔTallow = εtsc / K αT R

The wall should not be exhibited to thermal shock by too early removal of insulation and/or formwork.
Nevertheless, it must be remembered that restraint stresses have major impact on the total thermal stresses in early-
age walls. Thus, the degree of restraint should be minimised by decreasing the length of the element, the stiffness of
the restraining body of the degree of the reinforcement at the joint.