Mech Time-Depend Mater (2008) 12: 343–356

DOI 10.1007/s11043-008-9067-4

Development of early age shrinkage stresses in reinforced

concrete bridge decks

Gergis W. William · Samir N. Shoukry · Mourad Y. Riad

Received: 22 February 2008 / Accepted: 19 September 2008 / Published online: 8 October 2008
© Springer Science+Business Media, B. V. 2008

Abstract This paper describes the instrumentation and data analysis of a reinforced con-
crete bridge deck constructed on 3-span continuous steel girders in Evansville, West Vir-
ginia. An instrumentation system consisting of 232 sensors is developed and implemented
specifically to measure strains and temperature in concrete deck, strains in longitudinal and
transverse rebars, the overall contraction and expansion of concrete deck, and crack open-
ings. Data from all sensors are automatically collected every 30 minutes starting at the time
of placing the concrete deck. Measured strain and temperature time-histories were used to
calculate the stresses, which were processed to attenuate the thermal effects due to daily
temperature changes and isolate the drying shrinkage component. The results indicated that
most of concrete shrinkage occurs during the first three days. Under the constraining effects
from stay-in-place forms and reinforcement, early age shrinkage leads to elevated longitu-
dinal stress, which is the main factor responsible for crack initiation.

Keywords Concrete shrinkage · Early age cracking · Bridge decks · Bridge

instrumentation

1 Introduction

Shrinkage is a time-dependant decrease in concrete volume compared with its original place-
ment volume and it results from physical and chemical changes that occur in the cement

G.W. William () · M.Y. Riad

Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, West Virginia University, Morgantown,
WV 26506-6103, USA
e-mail: Gergis.William@mail.wvu.edu
M.Y. Riad
e-mail: myriad@mail.wvu.edu

S.N. Shoukry
Departments of Civil & Environmental Engineering, and Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering,
West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506-6106, USA
e-mail: Samir.Shoukry@mail.wvu.edu
344 Mech Time-Depend Mater (2008) 12: 343–356

paste (Nawy 1997). Over time, shrinkage may induce cracking in concrete structures, which
can severely decrease their life expectancy. According to the Portland Cement Association,
four main types of shrinkage are associated with concrete namely, plastic, autogenous, car-
bonation, and drying shrinkage (Kosmatka et al. 2005). Plastic shrinkage is due to moisture
loss from the concrete before the concrete sets. Autogenous shrinkage is associated with
the loss of water from the capillary pores due to the hydration of the cement (Holt and
Janssen 1998). Carbonation shrinkage is caused by the chemical reaction of various cement
hydration products with carbon dioxide present in the air. This type of shrinkage is usually
limited to the surface of the concrete (Mokaram 2002). Drying shrinkage can be defined
as the volumetric change due to drying of the concrete. Total shrinkage is the sum of each
individual volume change due to plastic, autogenous, carbonation, and drying deformations.
In practice, design codes are using an ultimate shrinkage value that is likely a measure of
only the long term drying shrinkage. This is erroneous, since the early age shrinkage can
sometimes equal or even exceed the standard long-term one. In addition, for high strength
concrete where there is a water/cement ratio (w/c) under approximately 0.40, there is a high
probability of autogenous shrinkage contributing to the ultimate shrinkage. It was reported
that at a w/c ratio of 0.40 the autogenous shrinkage is 40% of the total shrinkage magnitude,
while at a w/c ratio of 0.23 it is equivalent to 80%. This means that at a low w/c all of the
total shrinkage is attributed to autogenous deformation rather than drying shrinkage (Holt
2001).
Virtually concrete is subjected to some form of restraint, such as steel reinforcement,
forms, subgrade, or adjacent members. As concrete begins to lose volume, the restraints pre-
vent concrete from shrinking freely, which then induces tensile stress in the concrete (Au et
al. 2007). When such tensile stresses exceed the concrete tensile strength, visible cracks may
be expected to occur (Shah and Weiss 2006). Although shrinkage is typically thought of as a
long-term effect, recent studies have shown that it can significantly affect the initial term re-
sponse of structures (Bischoff and Johnson 2007). Brown et al. (2007) reported that early age
cracking resulting from drying shrinkage affects more than 100,000 US bridge decks. Sig-
nificant amount of research work has been performed in an attempt to mitigate the adverse
effect of shrinkage-induced stresses through the use of shrinkage-reducing admixtures (Qian
et al. 2005; Han and Yan 2006), supplementary cementitious materials (Vemuri et al. 2005;
Akkaya et al. 2007), polypropylene fibers (Banthia and Gupta 2006), and mineral admix-
tures (Malathy and Subramanian 2007). He et al. (2006) reported that adopting shrinkage-
reducing admixtures can reduce concrete shrinkage; however it retards the hydration
processes of the cement.
The main objective of this study is to identify the contribution of concrete shrinkage
to the premature transverse cracking of concrete bridge decks and recommend means to
reduce or eliminate its frequency of occurrence. To achieve such an objective, the authors
extensively instrumented a three-span continuous steel girder bridge to characterize its field
behavior under actual loading conditions. The sensory system and data acquisition systems
utilized in this study were shown to be capable of reliable, long-term structural monitoring.
The measured strains and temperatures were used to calculate the accumulated state of stress
developed in the deck since its placement in June 2003.

2 Evansville bridge structure

Evansville Bridge carries WV Route 92 across Little Sandy Creek in Preston County, West
Virginia. This typical three span continuous steel girder bridge has a skewed angle of 55◦ and
Mech Time-Depend Mater (2008) 12: 343–356 345

Fig. 1 Evansville bridge details

is supported by two piers and two integral abutments as shown in Fig. 1. The abutments were
0.9 m thick, 1.82 m high and 16.2 m wide. Each abutment was supported on a single row
of eight HP12×53 piles oriented in weak-axis bending and embedded 0.3 m to the central
portion of the abutment. The bridge width is 13.4 m and the total bridge length is 44.8 m
with edge spans 14.78 m long and a central span 15.24 m long. The deck accommodates two
traffic lanes, each 3.65 m (12 ft) wide, and two shoulders of widths 2.6 and 2.9 m as shown in
Fig. 1(b). The bridge structure was designed in accordance with the 1999-AASHTO Load
and Resistance Factor Design (LRFD) Bridge Design Specifications for HL-93 live load
model. The minimum thickness of the reinforced concrete deck, between main girders, is
200 mm over the top of the SIP forms but reaches a thickness of 225 mm over the girders as
shown in Fig. 1. Concrete deck was poured over corrugated stay-in-place galvanized steel
forms. The bridge is constructed in two stages. The construction of the first stage, where all
sensors were placed, was completed in June 2003.
During the construction of the bridge, 232 sensors were placed along half-length of the
structure to continually monitor the bridge’s response to traffic and environmental loadings.
Strain gages were placed strategically on three girders and within the concrete deck to mea-
sure specific aspects of the bridge’s performance. Two different types of strain gages were
utilized to capture the strain distributions present in Evansville Bridge: vibrating wire gages
were used to measure long-term strains due to static loading and environmental effects, and
wire resistance strain gages were used to measure the short-term, dynamic strains caused by
traffic passing over the bridge. Low modulus vibrating wire embedment strain gages were
placed in twenty two locations, with 6 gages at each location in tree form as illustrated
in Fig. 2. Geokon VCE 4200 vibrating wire strain gages with sensitivity of 1 microstrain,
and accuracy of ±0.5%, were embedded in the deck to capture the long-term triaxial state of
strain caused by environmental variations. Each sensor also includes a thermistor to measure
346 Mech Time-Depend Mater (2008) 12: 343–356

Fig. 2 Locations of strain measurements in concrete deck

the local temperature, which allows for temperature compensation, since the coefficients of
thermal expansion of the gages and the concrete are different. Along with the strain measure-
ments, other parameters including temperature gradient through the deck thickness, strains
in reinforcing steel rebar, crack opening, girder inclination, expansion joints openings, and
weather conditions are being continuously monitored. The cables from various sensors were
dropped down from the deck and were bundled in conduits fixed to the bottom flanges of
the steel girders to the bridge abutment.
The cables were then collected to a main conduit that runs to a field office that houses the
data acquisition system. The sensors were connected to fourteen multiplexers, each seven
are controlled by a CR10 Campbell Scientific data logger with 2 MB memory for data
storage. The data loggers are powered by marine batteries that are kept fully charged via a
solar panel. Data acquisition started a few minutes before concrete casting and continues to
date at a rate of one reading every 30 minutes. Each data logger is equipped with a phone
modem so that data could be retrieved from any location in the USA via a phone line. The
instrumentation plan and installation procedures in the site ensured splice-free cables for
each sensor, which was rewarded by collecting data with high signal to noise ratio. The first
stage of Evansville bridge construction was completed in June 20, 2003. This stage was
opened to traffic after forty days from its completion.

3 Concrete material properties

The design of Evansville Bridge utilized a full-depth monolithic Class K concrete deck,
approved by West Virginia Division of Highways, whose proportions are summarized in
Table 1. The concrete deck was placed in June 2003. The deck was cured for seven days by
covering its top with burlap that was kept continuously wet by sprinkling water as deemed
necessary and it was also overlaid with plastic sheets. Standard concrete cylindrical speci-
mens were prepared at the bridge site to measure the gain in concrete mechanical properties
as it ages. The specimens were left to cure in the field during the first seven days under wet
Mech Time-Depend Mater (2008) 12: 343–356 347

Table 1 Class K concrete mix composition

Material Units Nominal proportion

(Kg/m3 )

Portland Cement kg 300

Fly Ash (19% wt% cement) kg 57
Coarse aggregate No. 57—SSD kg 946
Fine aggregate—SSD kg 829
Water kg 144
Air content 7% kg 0.09
Total mass kg 2,276
Air—entraining admixture 1.20 fl.oz/Cwt 1.20 0.216
HRWR admixture 13.00 fl.oz/Cwt 13.00 2.574
Set—Retarding admixture 3.70 fl.oz/Cwt 3.70 0.666
Total mass with liquid admixtures kg 2,279
Water/cement binder ratio 0.40

Fig. 3 Concrete strength gain with age

burlap and plastic sheets, thus the curing and moisture conditions were the same for both
specimens and the deck. These specimens were then demoulded and transported to the lab-
oratory where they were tested in compression and split tensile at different ages. Figure 3
illustrates the development of concrete strengths measured at the laboratory as it ages. The
strength gain was found to be fitting the hyperbolic relation developed by Geiker (1983):
√
k(t − t0 )
S = Su √ (1)
1 + k(t − t0 )

where,
S is Compressive strength at age t , days,
Su is Limiting strength,
K is Rate constant, 1/day,
t0 is Age at start of strength development, days.
Concrete maturity was then used to correlate the gain in strength in the field to that measured
in the standard laboratory condition, given the history of measured temperature experienced
348 Mech Time-Depend Mater (2008) 12: 343–356

Table 2 Concrete properties

Concrete age Young’s modulus Poisson’s ratio
(days) (GPa)

2 23.21 0.193
4 26.11 0.203
18 27.98 0.239
28 28.78 0.240
60 34.84 0.245
96 36.03 0.251

Fig. 4 Stress-strain relationships for concrete at different ages

by the concrete in the field (Nawy 1997). Equation (2) predicts the equivalent age of con-
crete, te , for a specified measured temperature history as:


Age
 [ φ ( 1 − 1 )] 
te = e R T +273 Tr +273 • t (2)
t=0

where φ is activation energy, 39050 J/mol, t is concrete age in days, R is Universal gas
constant = 8.3144 J/mol/°C, T is Measured PCC temperature, °C and Tr is Reference tem-
perature, 20°C. The equivalent age te can be then substituted into (1) to calculate the in-situ
concrete strength.
Additionally three concrete cylinders were fitted with two vibrating wire strain gages to
measure the axial and radial strains induced at the cylinder under axial compressive load-
ing. The load is applied gradually to the specimen from zero to 89 KN (20 kips) and then
removed gradually. The test was conducted at the concrete ages listed in Table 2. Figure 4 il-
lustrates the stress-strain relationships obtained when testing the concrete specimens at ages
2 and 28 days. It can be noticed that, as the maximum stress is well below the compressive
strength of the concrete, the stress-strain relationship within the tested stress range can be
approximated as linear. The results from the instrumented cylinders enabled calculating the
modulus of elasticity and Poisson’s ratio of concrete at different ages as summarized in Ta-
ble 2. The 28-days concrete coefficient of thermal expansion was experimentally measured
and found to be 11.2616 × 10−6 /°C.
Mech Time-Depend Mater (2008) 12: 343–356 349

4 Strains and stresses in concrete deck

The triaxial state of strain induced in the concrete bridge deck and the corresponding tem-
perature were measured at several locations along the bridge deck as depicted in Fig. 2.
Figure 5 illustrates the measured temperature-time history and the corresponding strains in
measured in the three directions at mid-span #1 over girder B at both levels of top and bottom
reinforcements, shown in Fig. 6. Figure 5(b) shows that longitudinal strains measured at the
levels of the top and bottom reinforcements have the same sign (either tension or compres-
sion). The same observation could be also made on transverse strains as shown in Fig. 5(c).
This indicates that the concrete deck undergoes volumetric changes due to expansion and
contraction due to temperature variations. Examining the design calculations indicates that
the negative bending moment in the transverse direction at this location yields a flexural
strain of 8.4 microstrain at the deck and bottom as illustrated in Fig. 6. The magnitudes of
thermal strains, which reached about 150 microstrain as shown in Fig. 4, are much higher in
magnitude than the flexural strains due the deck own weight.
The strains measured at the level of the top reinforcement are approximately 50 micro-
strains higher than those measured at the bottom as can be seen in Figs. 5(b) and (c). The
measured strain is consistently higher at the top of the deck than it is at the bottom. This
phenomenon can be attributed to the constrained condition of the deck’s bottom. The bottom
of the deck is held in place by the grooves in the corrugated galvanized steel stay-in-place
forms and the shear connectors welded to the top flanges of the main girder.
Knowing the concrete material properties, which were experimentally measured, the state
of stress induced in the concrete deck can be determined. If the calculated longitudinal stress
at any location exceeds the concrete modulus of rupture, it would indicate that the concrete
developed crack at that location. Using such an approach to predict the occurrence of cracks
in concrete and comparing the results with those of the technique of using the crack-meters
would give a good validation for the latter technique. Based on the theory of thermoelasticity,
the total measured strain at any point is the sum:

εij = εij(M) + εij(T ) (3)

where εij(M) is the contribution from the mechanical forces such as external constraints and
εij(T ) are the temperature-induced strains. When the temperature changes by an amount of
T , the thermal strains resulting from such a change in Temperature of a completely unre-
strained isotropic volume are given by:

εij(T ) = αT δij (4)

where α is the linear coefficient of thermal expansion of the concrete deck. The presence of
the Kronecker delta δij in (4) indicates that shear strains are not induced by a temperature
change in an unconstrained body. The stress-strain relationship for the concrete in compres-
sion is considered to be linear in a stress region up to 30% of the maximum compressive
stress (Chen and Han 1995), which is also evident from the stress-strain plots presented in
Fig. 4. Also, the stress-strain curve of the concrete in tension is generally approximated as
a straight line from the origin to the failure point (Pillali and Menon 2003). Therefore, by
inserting (4) into (3) and using Hook’s law for the mechanical strains in that equation, the
thermoelastic constitutive equation can be written as:

1+ν v
εij = σij − σkk δij + αT δij (5)
E E
350 Mech Time-Depend Mater (2008) 12: 343–356

Fig. 5 Measured temperature and strain time histories in bridge deck at mid-span
Mech Time-Depend Mater (2008) 12: 343–356 351

Fig. 6 Design strains due to concrete deck own weight

Equation (5) may be inverted to express the stresses in terms of strains as:

E
σij = [νδij εkk + (1 − 2ν)εij − (1 + v)αT δij ] (6)
(1 + ν)(1 − 2ν)

where E is the concrete modulus of elasticity, and ν is its Poisson’s ratio. As shown in
Table 2, the concrete properties change with its age. Therefore, the data presented in Table 2
were used to fit relationships for the change in modulus of elasticity and Poisson’s ratio as
a function of time, which were subsequently used to calculate such values at any instant of
time. As a result, at any instant of time, the longitudinal stress σx at any point within the
concrete bridge deck can be calculated by setting i = j = 1 in (6):

E(t)
σx (t) = [εx (t)[1 − ν(t)] + ν(t)[εy (t) + εz (t)] − [1 + ν(t)]αT (t)]
[1 + v(t)][1 − 2ν(t)]
(7)
where:
εx is the measured longitudinal strain (in traffic direction),
εy is the measured transverse strain (perpendicular to traffic direction),
εz is the measured vertical strain,
T is the measured temperature change.
Equation (7) was used to calculate the longitudinal stresses on top and bottom of the concrete
deck at different locations along the bridge. Figure 7 illustrates the stress time-histories
measured at mid-span 1 and over the pier. Stress and strain time histories for the other
instrumented locations were reported by Shoukry et al. (2005, 2007). Similar to the strain-
time histories, the stresses developed at the top and bottom of the deck have the same sign
(tensile or compressive). Noticeable is the development of tensile stresses at the deck top
higher than that at the bottom. Magnitudes of such tensile stresses exceeded the concrete
modulus of rupture as can be seen in Fig. 7, which indicates the formation of cracks at these
locations. The visual inspection of the bridge deck after a week from its placement also
proved the formation of cracks at the same locations as predicted from the stress calculations
as shown in Fig. 8.
In (7), the coefficient of thermal expansion α is assumed to be constant at its 28-day
measured value. Results reported by Downie (2005) showed that the value of this parameter
decreases exponentially by 15–20% during the first 14 days to reach a steady state value. As
a result of such an assumption, the stresses calculated using (7) for the first 14 days may be
352 Mech Time-Depend Mater (2008) 12: 343–356

Fig. 7 Stress time history in bridge deck

Fig. 8 Transverse cracks in concrete deck

Mech Time-Depend Mater (2008) 12: 343–356 353

less than their actual values, yet they are still high enough to cause early age cracking during
the first week as shown in Figs. 7 and 8.

5 Stresses due to shrinkage

At any time during the life of a concrete deck, the strain at any point results from the com-
bined effect of major variables: shrinkage, creep due to sustained loads, and temperature
variations. The deck self weight is the only sustained load, thus it is the cause of creep.
As presented in Fig. 6, the strain components due to the deck self weight at the levels of
top and bottom reinforcements are 3 and 6 microstrains respectively, which are very small
compared to the measured strains. Additionally, the effect of the resulting stresses might
have been relieved by the deck cracking during the first week after construction before any
significant creep takes place. Thus, the contribution of creep does not seem to be significant.
Consequently, shrinkage can be considered the main contributor to the deck stresses during
the early age. Any small contribution from the creep will be also accounted for as a part
from shrinkage stresses.
At the early age, concrete shrinkage occurs simultaneously with a temperature decrease
after cement develops its heat of hydration. Under the effect of present constraints from
galvanized steel forms, shear studs and reinforcement, these two structural factors contribute
to early age cracking of bridge decks. In this section, the contribution of each factor will be
identified from the stress time histories calculated from the measured strain and temperature
time histories. As a result of the aforementioned constraints on the bridge deck, stresses
develop along the deck due to temperature changes as well as volumetric changes in concrete
due to drying shrinkage, volume growth, and moisture changes. If a concrete bridge deck
undergoes a cyclic temperature change only, so that the end temperature is the same as
the initial temperature (T = 0), the residual stress induced in the deck at the end of such a
cycle should be zero. However, due to other volumetric changes, slab would develop stresses
when T = 0°.
To further illustrate this point, the longitudinal stresses are plotted versus the measured
temperature changes after 1, 7, and 28 days as illustrated in Fig. 9. As can be seen in Fig. 9,
tensile stresses developed in the concrete deck during the first day, despite the fact that
the concrete undergoes temperature increase where it was expected to develop compressive
stresses. This indicates that as the concrete changes its state from the semi-fluid to solid,
the effect of volumetric changes due to drying shrinkage is much higher than the effect of
temperature variations. To quantify the stress due to temperature, the stresses temperature
relation shown by the loop in Fig. 9 was fitted to a straight line. The intercept of such a
relation at the zero temperature change (T = 0°) is the magnitude of the tensile stress
developed in the concrete deck due to the constrained drying shrinkage. The slope of the
straight line is the amount of stress that develops in the concrete due to the change in its
temperature under the effect of the existing constraints.
To examine the change in the magnitude of the tensile stresses due to shrinkage as the
concrete dries and develops its strength, the stress-temperature relations were plotted at
different ages as presented in Fig. 9. As the concrete ages, the tensile stress due to shrinkage
gets stabilized as can be seen in Fig. 10. It can be noticed that the magnitude of tensile stress
developed due to drying shrinkage exceed the concrete modulus of rupture during the first
day, therefore such stress is the primary cause for early age cracks since at this time concrete
did not develop enough tensile strength nor did it develop enough bond strength with the
steel rebar to sustain such stresses. Therefore, to avoid early age cracking of the concrete,
354 Mech Time-Depend Mater (2008) 12: 343–356

Fig. 9 Stress versus temperature change at different ages

Fig. 10 Longitudinal stresses

due to drying shrinkage

the concrete mix should be designed so that could it develop higher tensile stresses that
cannot be surpassed by the shrinkage stress or the amount of constraints should be reduced.
One way to reduce these constraints is to fill the grooves of the stay-in-place forms with
foam or light material so it allows for the sliding of the concrete as it shrinks at the early
age.
The longitudinal stress due to temperature variation can be expressed in terms of the
concrete modulus of elasticity E, and the coefficient of thermal expansion α assuming one
dimensional model as:
σ = CEαT (8)
where C is a constant depends on the constraints C = 1 for a fully constrained deck and
C = 0 for a free deck. The quantity of the product Eα is a constant equal to 0.324 (28.78 ×
103 ∗ 11.26 × 10−6 ). The plots in Fig. 7 indicate that the average slope of the straight line is
Mech Time-Depend Mater (2008) 12: 343–356 355

0.108 and 0.133 at mid-span and the pier respectively. This means that the C values at these
locations are 0.34 and 0.40 respectively.
The results presented in Figs. 9 and 10 indicate that the magnitude of tensile stresses
induced in the concrete bridge deck due to both drying shrinkage and temperature varia-
tions are relatively high compared to those induced due to even traffic loading. The current
practice is to design the bridge structure to sustain the expected traffic and consider the
shrinkage and thermal stresses as secondary loading effects. This practice seems not to be
applicable under the current construction techniques and the resulting degree of constraints
since the deck is over constrained, which results in high stresses that lead to concrete crack-
ing few hours after concrete placement. The results also indicate that reducing the stress due
to shrinkage is a main factor in reducing the early age cracks of the concrete bridge decks.
This can be achieved by using concrete with low shrinkage and increasing the concrete
modulus of rupture.

6 Conclusion

The results presented in this study indicate that reinforced concrete bridge decks are con-
strained at the bottom surface by the corrugated stay-in-place forms as well as shear studs.
Under the effect of such constraints, drying shrinkage of the concrete results in high tensile
stresses that exceed the concrete modulus of rupture and cause early age cracking on the
first day. The current practice is to design the bridge structure to sustain the expected traffic
and consider the shrinkage and thermal stresses as secondary loading effects. This practice
seems not to be applicable under the current construction techniques and the resulting degree
of constraints since the deck is over constrained, which results in high stresses that lead to
concrete cracking few hours after concrete placement. Reducing the stress due to shrinkage
is a main factor in reducing the early age cracks of the concrete bridge decks. This can be
achieved by using low shrinkage concrete and increasing the concrete modulus of rupture.
Adding fibers to the concrete mix seems to be a good alternative to increase the concrete
tensile strength hence minimize the early age cracking.

Acknowledgements West Virginia Department of Transportation is gratefully acknowledged for sponsor-

ing this research program and for the active support through the entire process of constructing the test site.
The authors acknowledge in particular the support and encouragement of WVDOH Engineering and Materi-
als Divisions and District 4.

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