11/21/2020

THEORY OF CREEP IN
CONCRETE
STRUCTURES

THEORY OF CREEP IN CONCRETE STRUCTURES

Definitions
Creep is generally defined as the time-dependent strain caused by a stress which is applied
onto the material at certain time t’, and is maintained constant in time thereafter.
Traditionally, creep has been separated in two superposed strains: a basic creep deformation,
which may be defined as the time-dependent deformation under constant load occurring at
constant humidity conditions (i.e. the material has a homogeneous distribution of moisture
content), and a drying creep strain, defined as the deformation in excess to the basic creep
strain observed when the same material is exposed to drying while under load(i.e. there is
moisture movement due to lack of thermodynamic equilibrium with the environment).
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THEORY OF CREEP IN CONCRETE STRUCTURES

In the simplest approximation, concrete may be regarded as an aging viscoelastic material.

(There is a different group of materials—such as polymer plastics, almost all biological
materials, and metals at high temperatures—that exhibits gradual deformation and recovery
when they are subjected to loading and unloading. The response of such materials is
dependent upon how quickly the load is applied or removed, the extent of deformation being
dependent upon the rate at which the deformation-causing loads are applied. This time-
dependent material behaviour is called viscoelasticity. Viscoelasticity is made up of two
words: viscosity and elasticity. Viscosity is a fluid property and is a measure of resistance to
flow. Elasticity, on the other hand, is a solid material property. Therefore, a viscoelastic
material is one that possesses both fluid and solid properties.)

THEORY OF CREEP IN CONCRETE STRUCTURES

Various terms are shown in Fig. 1.1 and are described in detail below, together with
an indication of typical value ranges. The values of total strain, shrinkage, and
creep are time-dependent.
Shrinkage and creep may occur in three dimensions; however, most research
suggests that total strain, shrinkage, and creep occur in each dimension
independently. Thus, changes in length will be consistently used throughout this
document, rather than changes in volume.
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THEORY OF CREEP IN CONCRETE STRUCTURES

THEORY OF CREEP IN CONCRETE STRUCTURES

1. Total strain—Total strain is the total change in length per unit length measured
on a concrete specimen subjected to a sustained constant load at uniform
temperature. As shown in Fig. 1.1, total strain is the sum of shrinkage and load-
induced strain.
2. Load-induced strain—Load-induced strain is the time-dependent strain due to a
constant sustained load applied at the age t′. Experimentally, it is obtained by
subtracting from the total strain the shrinkage strain measured on load-free
companion specimens with the same size and shape as the loaded specimens
and placed in the same environment. The load-induced strain is frequently
subdivided into an initial strain and a creep strain. The initial and creep strain
components should be defined consistently so that their sum corresponds to
the appropriate load-induced strain
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THEORY OF CREEP IN CONCRETE STRUCTURES

3. Initial strain at loading or nominal elastic strain—The short-term strain at the moment
of loading is termed initial strain and is frequently considered as a nominal elastic
strain as it contains creep that occurs during the time taken to measure the strain. It
is dependent on the duration of the load application and strain reading procedures.
The separation of this initial component of the load-induced strain is made for
convenience, and it may be determined using standardized procedures for the
experimental determination of a static elastic modulus (corresponding to the strain in a short
interval after load application)
ASTM C 469 is often used to determine this value. In this test, the initial strain
corresponds to a load duration of 0.01 day (approximately 15 min).

THEORY OF CREEP IN CONCRETE STRUCTURES

4. Creep strain—Creep strain represents the time dependent increase in strain under
sustained constant load taking place after the initial strain at loading. It is obtained from the
load-induced strain by subtracting the initial strain. The creep strain may be several times
greater than the initial strain. Creep strain may be subdivided into a drying and a non-drying
component, termed drying and basic creep, respectively.
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THEORY OF CREEP IN CONCRETE STRUCTURES

Basic creep—Basic creep is the time-dependent increase in strain under sustained constant
load of a concrete specimen in which moisture losses or gains are prevented (sealed
specimen). It represents the creep at constant moisture content with no moisture movement
through the material, and is consequently independent of the specimen size and shape. To
determine basic creep, it is necessary to measure the deformations of a set of sealed
specimens under constant load and to determine the total strain; and, if autogenous
shrinkage cannot be neglected, deformations of companion sealed, load-free specimens
should be measured. It has not been determined whether basic creep approaches a final
value, even after 30 years of measurement of sealed specimens

THEORY OF CREEP IN CONCRETE STRUCTURES

It has been suggested that basic creep shows 2 well-defined stages given by:
- a short-term creep kinetics, acting during the first days after the application of a
load and showing a similar time scale to that of the reversible part of creep strains.
- a long-term creep kinetics, characterized by aging period, which seems to depend
only on the age of the material and not the age at loading or the loading history.
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THEORY OF CREEP IN CONCRETE STRUCTURES

Several mechanisms for explaining basic creep of concrete at short or long term
have been proposed in the literature.
For the case of short term basic creep some of the proposed mechanisms are listed
below:
- osmotic pressure effect;
- solidification theory;
- migration of adsorbed water within the capillary porosity.
As for the long term basic creep, the micro-sliding between CSH particles and their
own sheets has become a well accepted mechanism.

THEORY OF CREEP IN CONCRETE STRUCTURES

Drying creep—Drying creep is the additional creep occurring in a specimen exposed to the
environment and allowed to dry. As it is caused by the drying process, drying creep depends
on the size and shape of the specimen and may be expected to show a limiting value at long
term.
Three sets of specimens are required to determine the drying creep: a loaded set that is
allowed to dry to determine the total strain, a loaded set of sealed specimens to determine
basic creep, and a load-free set at drying to determine the total shrinkage strain.
This is mathematically described in Eq. (1-1).
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THEORY OF CREEP IN CONCRETE STRUCTURES

drying creep = total strain of drying specimen– total strain of sealed specimen –
shrinkage of drying specimen (1-1)
Drying creep and the Pickett effect:
The Pickett effect, named after the first researcher who documented it (Pickett,
1942), is observed when, in addition to a sustained external load, the specimen is
subjected to drying. As a result, the total deformation of the sample differs from the
sum of the drying shrinkage strains of the load-free sample and the delayed strain
due to the application of a sustained load in a non-drying (sealed) specimen (figure
3.21).

THEORY OF CREEP IN CONCRETE STRUCTURES

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THEORY OF CREEP IN CONCRETE STRUCTURES

This means that these two effects cannot be combined by linear superposition. The
observed difference between measured strains and strains due to superposed
effects is generally non-negligible and it may be interpreted either as a drying-
induced creep or as a stress-induced shrinkage.
Pickett suggested that the excess in the observed deformation is due to a nonlinear
relation between stresses and creep strains, which is not theoretically incorrect.
A number of mechanisms to explain the Pickett effect have been proposed in the
literature

THEORY OF CREEP IN CONCRETE STRUCTURES

Among these, the most popular are the seepage theory, the viscous shear theory
and the assumption of a micro-sliding between HCP and aggregates. These
proposals were not supported by a mathematical model, turning their
implementation in numerical models a somewhat arbitrary task. An exception is the
assumption of the microcracking effect on the creep strains as the main cause of
the excess in total deformation (Wittmann & Roelfstra, 1980). A brief description of
each of the proposed mechanisms, as well as the relevant references in the subject
can be found elsewhere (Bazant & Chern, 1985; Bazant, 1988; Bazant, 2001;
Tamtsia & Beaudoin, 2000). Sixty years after the first publication on this subject,
there is still no generally accepted theory, although a lot of progress has been made
towards this goal.
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THEORY OF CREEP IN CONCRETE STRUCTURES

The difference between strains measured in experiments and strains resulting from
superimposing basic creep and drying shrinkage ones is called drying creep in
modern concrete technology and corresponds to the shaded area in figure 3.21. It is
known that creep tests are greatly affected by environmental conditions, showing
considerable higher strain levels as drying becomes more intense. It is not the
ambient humidity that affects creep, but the intensity of the drying process, driven
by the gradient of internal RH (Bazant, 1988). Figure 3.22 shows that this increase
can be considerable (Acker & Ulm, 2001).

THEORY OF CREEP IN CONCRETE STRUCTURES

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THEORY OF CREEP IN CONCRETE STRUCTURES

As stated in previous paragraphs, the mechanisms behind drying creep are still not
well understood. However, it is now widely accepted that the total drying creep
strain may be subdivided into a structural (or apparent) and an intrinsic(actual) part.
The structural part corresponds to the drying-induced microcracking. Accordingly,
when a compressive load is acting on the specimen, microcracking will decrease,
thus resulting in an increase of the total strains. On the contrary, when
microcracking is not prevented by a compressive load, tensile stresses will develop
and form microcracks, thus diminishing these stresses (the material is in a softening
regime in the very outer layers).

THEORY OF CREEP IN CONCRETE STRUCTURES

Accordingly, strains will be lower (also the crack opening can be regarded in this
case as a tensile strain of the material, while it is under compressive loading). It has
been suggested that this effect could explain all of the observed drying creep
strains.
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THEORY OF CREEP IN CONCRETE STRUCTURES

There have been other proposals exclusively intended to explain drying creep
mechanisms. Particularly interesting are the models proposed by:
- Brooks (2001), based on the stress concentration due to the presence of rigid
inclusions and macropores;
- Bazant & Chern (1985), who suggested that drying creep can be regarded as
stress-induced shrinkage;
- Kovler (2001), who proposed that drying creep is induced by a variation of the
curvature radio of the menisci.

THEORY OF CREEP IN CONCRETE STRUCTURES

Compliance—The compliance J (t, t′) describes the time-dependent strain at age t

caused by a unit uniaxial sustained load applied since loading age t ′. As a result of
the previous definitions, the compliance is given by Eq. (1-2).
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THEORY OF CREEP IN CONCRETE STRUCTURES

where t = age of the concrete, and t′ = age of the concrete at loading.

Values of compliance are given in units of 1/MPa or 1/psi. They range from 30 to 300
micro-strain/MPa (0.20 to 2.00 micro-strain/psi).
It is recommended that all the information for the prediction of the time-dependent-
load-induced strains should be conveyed through the use of compliance
Typical compliance for different values of age at loading t' are presented in Fig. 1.2 using a
logarithmic scale for time.

THEORY OF CREEP IN CONCRETE STRUCTURES

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THEORY OF CREEP IN CONCRETE STRUCTURES

THEORY OF CREEP IN CONCRETE STRUCTURES

Specific creep—Specific creep is defined as the creep strain per unit load and can be
calculated as shown in Eq. (1-3).

The value of specific creep depends highly on the value of the initial strain estimated as
part of the testing procedure
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THEORY OF CREEP IN CONCRETE STRUCTURES

Creep coefficient—The creep coefficient is defined as the ratio of the creep strain to the
initial strain or, identically, as the ratio of the creep compliance to the compliance obtained
at early ages, such as after 2 min. By definition, the creep coefficient is dimensionless.
The creep coefficient may be determined from compliance and from the nominal elastic
modulus of the concrete, as shown in Eq. (1-4). Typical values of creep coefficient for long
periods under sustained constant loading range from 1.2 (very low creep) to 6 (very high
creep)

THEORY OF CREEP IN CONCRETE STRUCTURES

where ν(t,t′) = creep coefficient; E(t′) = elastic modulus at time t′; and J(t,t′) = compliance.
The creep coefficient is sensitive to the value assumed for E(t'), which depends on the time
assumed for complete loading to occur. Care should be taken when using the creep
coefficient due to the subdivision of the two components of the strain from which it is
defined.
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BASIC EXPERIMENTAL FACTS RELATING TO CREEP

The time-dependent deformations of concrete originate chiefly in the hardened Portland

cement paste. This is a strongly hydrophylic porous material (of typical porosity 0.4-0.55)
normally containing a large amount of evaporable (not chemically bound) water. The
material is formed by hydration of Portland cement grains, which yields (aside from calcium
hydroxide) a very fine gel-type structure consisting mainly of calcium silicate hydrate
(3CaOꞏ 2Si01 • 2.5HzO).

BASIC EXPERIMENTAL FACTS RELATING TO CREEP

Due to this and similar constituents, the material has an enormous internal surface (roughly
500 m2/cm3). The hydration process, which continues at normal temperatures for years and
never becomes complete, causes a gradual change of the properties of cement paste and
concrete, which in the field of mechanics is usually called aging. Furthermore, as the
material has a low degree of chemical stability, its microstructure interacts with water and
undergoes gradual changes in response to stress environmental conditions. These facts are
responsible for the extremely complex thermo-mechnnical behaviour of this material.
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BASIC EXPERIMENTAL FACTS RELATING TO CREEP

To realize the various degrees of simplification in the subsequent discussions, it will be

appropriate to begin with a concise listing of the typical experimentally observed
phenomena relevant for creep
1. Creep is smaller if the age at loading is higher. This effect, called aging (or maturing), is
important even for the many-year-old concrete. It is caused by gradual hydration of
cement.
2. At constant water content w (sealed specimens) and temperature T, creep is linearly
dependent on stress up to about 0.4 of the strength and obeys the principle of
superposition, provided that large strain reversals (not stress reversals) and, especially,
cyclic strains are excluded

BASIC EXPERIMENTAL FACTS RELATING TO CREEP

3. Creep curves plotted in logarithm of the time from loading. t - t’, have a significant
slope over many orders of magnitude of t- t' (from 0.01 sec to several decades at least).
This means that the retardation spectrum is very broad. There is no evidence of creep
curves approaching some final asymptotic value.
4. In contrast with polymers and metals, the deviatoric creep and volumetric creep are
about equally important. At constant w and T, the Poisson ratio due to creep strains is
about constant and equals its elastic value (v= 0.18)
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BASIC EXPERIMENTAL FACTS RELATING TO CREEP

5. The tensile creep is about the same as the compressive creep

6. After unloading, creep is partly irreversible. Creep recovery of fully unloaded sealed
specimens is less than that predicted when the principle of superposition is applied
(about J of this prediction). This is a nonlinear effect.
7. Creep recovery is almost independent of age and is linearly dependent' on the stress
drop even if the previous stress has been high (0.65 of the strength). Creep-recovery
curves tend to straight lines in the logarithmic time scale.

BASIC EXPERIMENTAL FACTS RELATING TO CREEP

8. The additional creep and elastic strain due to a stress increment after a long creep period
are less than those for the same stress increment on a virgin specimen of the same age.
The creep properties for such increments seem to be anisotropic.
9. Al constant water content w (as well as temperature), the creep is less for smaller w .
From h = 1.0 to h = 0.5, the decrease is probably much larger than that from 0.5 to 0.0 (h
= pore humidity)
10.The drop of elastic modulus due to incomplete drying is only moderate (not more than 10
percent from h = 1.0 to 0.1). After complete drying, a hysteresis on rewetting occurs.
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BASIC EXPERIMENTAL FACTS RELATING TO CREEP

11. When concrete is drying simultaneously with creep, creep is accelerated (drying creep
effect). The acceleration occurs not only in compression but also in shear and bending.
This effect is also manifested in the dependence of creep on the size and shape of
specimen. Furthermore, under simultaneous drying, the nonlinearity of creep versus
stress is more pronounced, and the additional creep due to drying is irrecoverable
12. Creep is considerably accelerated by any rapid change in water content, both negative
and positive, and by its cycling.
13. In drying unsealed specimens, loading per se causes only a negligible loss of water. i.e.
less than 3 percent of that in a companion unloaded specimen. Also, the rise in pore
humidity due to loading of a sealed specimen is negligible.

BASIC EXPERIMENTAL FACTS RELATING TO CREEP

14. Stationary permeation of water through concrete (at constant w) does not affect creep
appreciably.
15. When a dried specimen is rewetted (which produces swelling) and subsequently loaded
in compression, the creep that follows may be substantially larger than the previous
swelling
16. When concrete under load is drying, the Poisson ratio due to creep strains is decreased
(up to about v = 0.05), and the lateral creep in a uniaxial test is unaffected by drying.
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BASIC EXPERIMENTAL FACTS RELATING TO CREEP

17. As compared with the prediction of the principle superposition, pulsating loads
considerably accelerate creep of concrete, even at low-stress levels (cyclic creep).
When pulsation occurs after a long period under constant load, cyclic creep is negligible
as compared with a virgin specimen. Poisson ratio decreases with the number of cycles.
In cement paste at low stress, cyclic creep is not observed.
18. Aging (cement hydration) is decelerated by a drop in pore humidity and accelerated by a rise in
temperature.

BASIC EXPERIMENTAL FACTS RELATING TO CREEP

19. Although aging is explicable only by cement hydration, the change of creep properties is
significant even in the many-years old concrete, in which the amount of cement still
undergoing hydration is negligible and neither elastic modulus nor strength changes
appreciably .
20. Creep rate grows with temperature.
21. A rapid heating as well as rapid cooling accelerates creep.
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