Creep and Shrinkage of High Strength Concretes: an Experimental Analysis

Abstract

The creep and shrinkage behaviour of high strength silica fume concretes is significantly different from that of conventional concretes. In order to represent the proper time-dependent response of the material in structural analysis and design, these aspects should be adequately quantified. This paper discusses an experimental setup that is able to determine the creep and shrinkage of concrete from the time of placing. It also compares different gages that can be used for measuring the strains. The method is applied to five different concretes in the laboratory under controlled environmental conditions. The phenomena that are quantified can be classified as basic shrinkage, drying shrinkage, basic creep and drying creep. The relative importance of these mechanisms in high strength concrete will also be presented.

Keywords

• Creep
• Shrinkage
• High Strength Concrete
• Experimental Analysis