Shrinkage effect on short-term deformation behavior of reinforced

concrete When it should not be neglected

Viktor Gribniak

, Gintaris Kaklauskas, Romualdas Kliukas, Ronaldas Jakubovskis

Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Sauletekio av. 11, Vilnius LT-10223, Lithuania
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 17 March 2013
Accepted 10 May 2013
Available online 21 May 2013
Keywords:
Concrete
Shrinkage
Design
a b s t r a c t
Traditionally, concrete shrinkage along with cracking provides one of the major concerns to the designers
because of the inaccuracies and unknowns that surround them. Although shrinkage is mainly associated
with long-term effects, even at rst loading, restrained shrinkage may cause cracking of concrete. The
essential point of present study is to specify the cases of short-term deformation analysis of reinforced
concrete (RC) structures when the shrinkage effect should not be neglected. The study combines the
knowledge on material and structural aspects of shrinkage phenomenon. The manuscript considers phys-
ical nature of shrinkage pointing out the major means of reducing shrinkage deformations. The article
also discusses peculiarities of constitutive modeling of shrunk reinforced concrete members and gives
recommendations for improving adequacy of the design. Furthermore, the paper discusses application
of steel bers as an efcient additive to reduce adverse effects of restrained shrinkage.
2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Increasing application of high-strength materials resulted in
longer spans and reduced stiffness of structural elements with
deformations frequently being the governing criterion in the de-
sign [1,2]. External loads, environmental actions, and deleterious
reactions may cause tensile stresses in structural elements. The
combination of high tensile stresses with low fracture resistance
of concrete often results in cracking that reduces the durability
of concrete structures. Restraining of concrete shrinkage is another
important, although most frequently neglected effect related to
cracking and deformations of reinforced concrete (RC) structures.
In general practice, shrinkage along with creep is taken into ac-
count in pre-stress loss and/or long-term deformation analysis.
However, even at rst loading, free shrinkage strain of concrete
may be of a magnitude well exceeding the cracking strain. Due
to the restraining action of reinforcement (or peculiarities of the
structural system), shrinkage induces tension stresses in the con-
crete that might signicantly reduce the crack resistance and in-
crease deformations of RC members. Most usually this effect is
not taken into account, thus, the short-term deformation and crack
width predictions as well as results of the constitutive modeling
may be misinterpreted.
The necessity to assess shrinkage inuence on deformation
behavior of cracked RC members has been recognized from the
beginning of the second half of 20th century by Lash [3], Scanlon
[4], and other researchers who had conducted comprehensive
experimental studies on deformation behavior of RC. Since the rst
attempts to assess the shrinkage effect on the design of RC struc-
tures, the investigations were mainly performed in two separate
ways. From the one hand, shrinkage was considered as a material
property of concrete. Material scientists, prominent in concrete
mixture composition, chemical additives, and their effects on
shrinkage deformations [58], often ignored structural problems.
From the other hand, the structural studies, recognizing impor-
tance of the shrinkage effect on structural behavior, were focused
on deduction of empirical equations nominally limited to simple
cases of cracking and deformation analysis of RC elements sub-
jected to tension [9,10] or exure [11,12].
For decades, development of numerical tools has resulted in ex-
tended application of computers in structural design. However,
calculation results are always dependent on the assumed material
laws. Application of inadequate constitutive models may cause sig-
nicant errors in design of RC structures. Until nowadays, concrete
shrinkage along with cracking provides one of the major concerns
to the designers because of the inaccuracies and unknowns that
surround them. To prevent the deleterious outcomes, an engineer
should, at least, recognize importance of the restrained shrinkage
effect on the structural behavior. In this respect, only a few inves-
tigations [13,14] can be mentioned.
Using the test results [1517] in combination with an innova-
tive numerical procedure [18], the authors have proposed a novel
0261-3069/$ - see front matter 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2013.05.028

Corresponding author. Tel.: +370 6 134 6759; fax: +370 5 270 0112.
E-mail addresses: Viktor.Gribniak@vgtu.lt (V. Gribniak), Gintaris.Kaklaus-
kas@vgtu.lt (G. Kaklauskas), Romualdas.Kliukas@vgtu.lt (R. Kliukas), Ronaldas.Ja-
kubovskis@vgtu.lt (R. Jakubovskis).
Materials and Design 51 (2013) 10601070
Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect
Materials and Design
j our nal homepage: www. el sevi er . com/ l ocat e/ mat des
method for eliminating the shrinkage effect from experimental
moment-curvature and constitutive (tension-stiffening) relations
of RC beams [19]. Recent investigations [20,21] have shown ef-
ciency of the proposed method for analyzing shrinkage-induced
reduction in the stiffness. The method also becomes a useful tool
for evaluating the inuence of steel bers to restrain the shrink-
age-induced cracks and, thereby, to increase exural stiffness of
cracked RC [22,23].
The essential point of present study is to specify the cases of de-
sign of RC structures when the shrinkage effect at rst loading
should not be neglected. In this context, the authors have intention
to combine the knowledge on material and structural aspects of
shrinkage phenomenon. This paper is based on the original nd-
ings and consists of two main parts. The rst part considers phys-
ical nature of shrinkage pointing out the major means to reduce
shrinkage deformations. In addition, the paper discusses applica-
tion of steel bers to reduce adverse effects of the restrained
shrinkage. The second part of the article proposes an effective tool
for numerical analysis and constitutive modeling of shrunk RC ele-
ments. Using the innovative numerical procedure, critical cases of
the design of RC elements are specied.
2. Shrinkage of concrete
Shrinkage of concrete is the time-dependent decrease in con-
crete volume. It can be considered as a complex physical phenom-
enon that involves several processes: formation of structure due to
cement hydration, variation of physicalmechanical properties
with time, and moisture transportation followed by the changes
in its content. The four main sources of such deformations are plas-
tic, autogenous, carbonation, and drying shrinkage.
(1) Plastic shrinkage is associated with moisture loss from fresh
concrete into the surrounding environment.
(2) Autogenous deformation is quite early shrinkage of concrete
caused by loss of water from capillary pores due to the
hydration (without the environmental loss of water). It
tends to increase at lower values of water-to-cement (W/
C) ratio or at a higher cement contents. Autogenous shrink-
age occurs primarily as a result of chemical processes (vol-
ume reduction due to the hydration) and self-desiccation
(internal consumption of water) in concretes made signi-
cantly reducing the water demands (0.2 < W/C < 0.42).
(3) Carbonation shrinkage is caused by the chemical reactions of
various cement hydration products with carbon dioxide
present in the environment.
(4) Drying shrinkage is the volumetric change due to the mois-
ture losses in the hardened concrete. Drying shrinkage is
caused by the movement and the loss of water squeezing
out from the pores due to decreased the capillary pressure
since the internal humidity attempts to make uniform with
an environmental conditions. Due to rapid loss of the water
in thinner structures (with higher surface area to volume
ratio), the drying shrinkage might become the most signi-
cant among the above components.
In general practice, only two major components (drying and
autogenous) are associated with shrinkage. Although autogenous
shrinkage was described at the beginning of 20th century, for a
long time its effect on structural behavior was ignored as workabil-
ity of a convenient (normal strength) concrete requires a relatively
high W/C ratio resulted in insignicant autogenous deformations.
Interest to the autogenous shrinkage increases only after incre-
ment in structural application of high strength concrete (HSC) with
very low W/C. Fig. 1 schematically illustrates proportions of the
autogenous and drying components in shrinkage deformation of
different types of concrete. In the normal strength concrete, the
autogenous component represents insignicant part of the total
shrinkage, therefore, a uniform (without distinguishing between
autogenous and drying components) consideration of shrinkage
is adequate. In the case of HSC, autogenous and drying components
should be distinguished because the ratio of these shrinkages to to-
tal shrinkage varies in time reaching quite signicant values [17].
Concrete made with the best materials, proportioned for best
results, mixed and placed under optimum conditions is character-
ized by the nominal shrinkage that can be assigned as 1. In accor-
dance with [24], deviations from the optimum conditions have a
cumulative effect as illustrated in Table 1. It can be observed that
the producing errors might increase shrinkage of concrete up to
5 times (!).
One of most substantial factors inuenced magnitude of the
shrinkage is the W/C ratio [25]. The shrinkage also depends on
the mixture proportions, aggregate properties, method of curing,
ambient temperature and humidity conditions. Tremper [24] has
pointed next factors affected the shrinkage:
Fig. 1. Shrinkage strain components in normal (left) and high-strength (right) concrete.
Table 1
Main factors inuenced drying shrinkage of concrete.
Cumulative
factors
Cause for increasing of shrinkage
1.00 1.25 = 1.25 Choice of cement
1.25 1.25 = 1.57 Excessive clay in aggregates
1.57 1.50 = 2.35 Decreasing inherent quality of aggregates with respect to
shrinkage
2.35 1.30 = 3.06 Decreasing of maximal aggregate size from 38 mm to
19 mm
3.06 1.10 = 3.36 Slump increment from 75100 mm (optimal) to 150
180 mm
3.36 1.05 = 3.50 Increasing temperature of concrete during mixing from
16 C (optimal) to 27 C
3.50 1.10 = 3.85 Increasing haul in a transit mixer, waiting period at the
job-side, or revolutions at mixing speed
3.85 1.30 = 5.00 Incorrect choice of an admixture
V. Gribniak et al. / Materials and Design 51 (2013) 10601070 1061
(1) Characteristics of the cement. The proportion of gypsum
added to the clinker during grinding has a substantial effect
on the shrinkage.
(2) Clay-like particles and coating on aggregates increase the
drying shrinkage.
(3) Aggregates, even though clean, vary in their contribution to
the drying shrinkage. Aggregates of high absorption tend to
increase the shrinkage deformations.
(4) The drying shrinkage is restrained proportional to the abso-
lute volume of aggregates. There is a general relationship
between the shrinkage and unit water content. Aggregates
of smaller maximum size require more mixing water and
hence increase the shrinkage.
(5) Requiring water. Higher slump increases the shrinkage.
(6) Increment in the concrete temperature at the time of mixing
increases the shrinkage along with requirement of addi-
tional water to secure a given slump.
(7) The minimum 70 revolutions are required to produce con-
crete in a transit mixer. Increment in the revolutions
requires more mixing water due to the abrasion dust forma-
tion and heat dissemination.
(8) Some of chemical admixtures (water-retarders) may signi-
cantly increase the drying shrinkage.
It should be noted that deformation properties of aggregates
also have signicant inuence on the drying shrinkage of concrete.
Lura et al. [5] have reported that the shrinkage may increase up to
2.5 times with increasing in deformation modulus of aggregates.
Unlike the drying deformations, the autogenous shrinkage is prac-
tically independent on deformational properties of the coarse
aggregate. Matsushita and Tsuruta [6] have reported that if the vol-
ume of coarse aggregate in HSC is maintained constant, the type of
coarse aggregate have also negligible effect on the autogenous
shrinkage. Considering deformation behavior of RC members, pres-
ent study does not make difference between these two phenomena
(i.e. drying and autogenous deformations) related to shrinkage and
is based on a single characteristic termed free shrinkage strain.
The term free shrinkage is commonly used to describe the con-
traction of hardened concrete exposed to relative humidity less
than 100%. The rate of shrinkage decreases rapidly with time. It
is observed that 1434% of the ultimate shrinkage occurs in
2 weeks, 4080% occurs in 3 months and 6685% within the rst
year. The word free refers to the case of a member that can short-
en without restraint, thus producing no stresses. Fig. 2a illustrates
how volumetric changes of the hardened concrete can result crack-
ing. It compares development of the cracking resistance (time-
dependent tensile strength) with the restrained shrinkage-induced
stresses. Taking into consideration that the shrinkage strain instan-
taneously increases with time, the specimen would crack at inter-
section of the lines represented the strength and the shrinkage-
induced stress. It is obvious that in the case when the strength is
always greater than the stress no cracking will occur.
The shrinkage-induced stress might be difcult to quantify as,
due to the relaxation effect, it is not equal to the elastic stress, de-
ned by multiplying the shrinkage strain by the elastic modulus.
Despite stress relaxation is similar to creep, the creep can be con-
sidered as the time dependent deformation under a sustained load,
the relaxation represents reduction in stress due to constant defor-
mation. Such reduction is presented in Fig. 2b:
(1) A specimen of length L is exposed to drying and a uniform
shrinkage strain develops in the section.
(2) The free shrinkage would cause the specimen to undergo a
change in length of DL
+
.
(3) To maintain the restraint (no length change), a ctitious load
is envisioned to be applied.
(4) If the specimen was free to displace under the ctitious load-
ing, the length of the specimen would increase (due to
creep) by an amount DL

.
(5) To maintain the perfect restraint, an opposing ctitious
stress is applied.
(6) Resulting in a reduction in the shrinkage stress.
This illustrates that creep can play a very signicant role in
determining the magnitude of stresses that develop at early ages
and has been estimated to relax the stresses by 3070% [17].
3. Shrinkage inuence on deformations of reinforced concrete
Since concrete is an ageing material, its strength and modulus
of elasticity increase with time as well as does shrinkage strain.
Analysis is also complicated by interdependence between strain
history and stress relaxation. TrostBazant method, called the
age adjusted modulus method [26], gives a simple procedure for
computing a strain under a varying stress. The method introduces
the ageing coefcient v(t,t
0
) which assesses that the stress Dr
c
(t,t
0
)
gradually applied from time t
0
to t will cause smaller strain than
the stress Dr
c
(t,t
0
) instantly applied at time t
0
and kept constant
until time t. In accordance with Gilbert and Ranzi [27], for the
shrinkage analysis of a non-cracked member assuming zero initial
stress at time t
0
, strain in concrete can be expressed as:
e
c
t; t
0

Dr
c
t; t
0

E
c
t
0

Dr
c
t; t
0

E
c
t
0

vt; t
0
ut; t
0
e
cs
t; t
0

Dr
c
t; t
0

E
ca
t; t
0

e
cs
t; t
0
: 1
Here E
ca
(t,t
0
) and E
c
(t
0
) are the age-adjusted effective and elasticity
at time t
0
moduli of concrete, respectively; u(t,t
0
) is the creep fac-
tor; and e
cs
(t,t
0
) is the shrinkage strain of concrete.
(a) (b)
Fig. 2. Restrained shrinkage-induced stresses in concrete: stress development (a) and conceptual description of relaxation (b).
1062 V. Gribniak et al. / Materials and Design 51 (2013) 10601070
As shown in Fig. 3a and b, shrinkage of an isolated plain con-
crete member would merely shorten it. Embedded reinforcement
provides restraint to shrinkage initiating compressive stresses in
reinforcement and tensile stresses in concrete (Fig. 3d and e). If
the reinforcement is not symmetrically placed on a section, shrink-
age causes non-uniform stress and strain distribution within the
height of the section (Fig. 4). The maximal tensile stresses appear
on the extreme concrete ber, close to larger concentration of
the reinforcement.
Considering the symmetrically reinforced element subjected to
axial loading of Fig. 3, shrinkage can be modeled by a procedure
based on the ctitious actions conception [19,20]. It introduces
the ctitious axial force N
cs
(t,t
0
) needed to impose an axial strain
e
cs
(t,t
0
) to a plain concrete member (Fig. 3ac)
N
cs
t; t
0
e
cs
t; t
0
E
ca
t; t
0
A
c
: 2
Here A
c
is the area of concrete net section. If the force N
cs
(t,t
0
) is ap-
plied at the centroid of the section, the steel/member strain (Fig. 3d
and e) is calculated by
e
s;cs
t; t
0
e
m;cs
t; t
0

N
cs
t; t
0

E
ca
t; t
0
A
c
E
s
A
s

e
cs
t; t
0
E
ca
t; t
0
A
c
E
ca
t; t
0
A
c
E
s
A
s

e
cs
t; t
0

1 nt; t
0
p
; 3
with
nt; t
0
E
s
=E
ca
t; t
0
; p A
s
=A
c
: 4
Here A
s
and E
s
are the area and the elastic modulus of reinforce-
ment, respectively; n(t,t
0
) and p are the modular and the reinforce-
ment ratios, respectively.
Shrinkage-induced forces acting in the steel and concrete are
equal, but have opposite signs. Based on such equilibrium condi-
tion, stress in concrete can be expressed as
r
c;cs
t; t
0

e
cs
t; t
0
E
s
p
1 nt; t
0
p
: 5
For a non-cracked member subjected to a short-term axial load P,
strain in reinforcement at time t can be calculated using the princi-
ple of superposition:
e
s
t e
s;cs
t; t
0

P
E
c
tA
c
E
s
A
s

e
cs
t; t
0
E
ca
t; t
0
A
c
E
ca
t; t
0
A
c
E
s
A
s

P
E
c
tA
c
E
s
A
s
: 6
If the member cracks, the non-linear analysis is performed using an
adequate tension-stiffening model for concrete (for instance, shown
in Fig. 5a). It should be noted that Eq. (6) needed for the calculation
has two different modulus of elasticity of concrete, i.e. E
c
(t) and E
ca
(-
t,t
0
). A convenient way to perform the non-linear analysis consists
of taking E
c
(t) as a reference modulus and rearranging the rst
member of Eq. (6) as
e
s;cs
t; t
0
e
s;cs
t
e

cs
tE
c
tA
c
E
c
tA
c
E
s
A
s
: 7
Here e
s,cs
(t) is the steel strain due to shrinkage assumed to be a
short-term action. In Eq. (7), the equivalent shrinkage strain e

cs
t
has been introduced, which is calculated from the condition of
equality of the steel strains dened by Eqs. (3) and (7):
e

cs
t e
cs
t; t
0

1 ntp
1 nt; t
0
p
; nt
E
c
t
E
s
: 8
The non-linear analysis of the cracked RC element is based on
the following equation [20]:
e
s
t e
m
t
N

cs
t P
E
c;sec
tA
c
E
s
A
s
; N

cs
t e

cs
tE
c;sec
tA
c
: 9
(a)
(b)
(c) (d)
(e)
(f)
Fig. 3. Shrinkage-induced deformations of plain concrete and symmetrically reinforced members: concrete section (a); free shrinkage deformation (b); action of the ctitious
shrinkage force N
cs
(t,t
0
) (c); reinforced section (d); deformations due to restrained shrinkage neglecting (e) and taking into consideration creep effect (f).
(a) (b) (c) (d) (e)
Fig. 4. Shrinkage-induced deformations of asymmetrically reinforced member: concrete net section (a); RC section (b); ctitious shrinkage force (c); equivalent system of
ctitious force and bending moment (d); distribution of deformations in the section (e).
V. Gribniak et al. / Materials and Design 51 (2013) 10601070 1063
Here E
c,sec
(t) is the secant deformation modulus obtained from the
stress-strain tension-stiffening diagram; N

cs
t is the equivalent c-
titious force (Fig. 3f). Strain in concrete is computed as
e
c
t e
m
t e

cs
t; e
m
t e
s
t: 10
The non-linear analysis can be performed iteratively using Eqs.
(8)(10), and stressstrain material laws [19,20]. To illustrate this
technique, the linear constitutive relationship shown in Fig. 5a is
used to model tension-stiffening whereas reinforcement behavior
was assumed to be elastic. Basic geometrical and material param-
eters are presented in Table 2 (Member-1) and Fig. 5b.
Three analyses assuming different values of free concrete
shrinkage strain (i.e. 0, 200 and 400 micro-strains) have been
carried out using the technique described above. The initial short-
enings of the member due to shrinkage are shown in Fig. 5c. As in
general testing practice these initial deformations are ignored, the
load-deformation diagrams were moved to zero point (Fig. 5d).
This gure allows to assess the shrinkage-induced reduction of
cracking resistance and stiffness of the RC member.
Based on the load sharing concept [9], tension-stiffening rela-
tionships can be derived from the load-deformation diagrams
shown in Fig. 5d. The calculated relationships for different values
of shrinkage are presented in Fig. 5e. As expected, the relationship
derived for the non-shrunk member (e
cs
= 0) is the same as the
originally assumed (Fig. 5b). Although the maximal stresses in
the remaining two curves are well below the tension strength,
their descending branches were identical to the original relation-
ship. As shown in Fig. 5e, negative stress portions were present
in the curves resulting in reduction of the ultimate strain e
ctu
(Fig. 5a).
Based on the numerical results, it has been perceived that sum-
mation of the maximal stress of the curves shown in Fig. 5e and the
shrinkage-induced stress [Eq. (5)] results in reduction of tension
strength of concrete. Then the modied tension strength of con-
crete of a shrunk member can be expressed as sketched in Fig. 5f:
f
ct;cs
f
ct
r
c;cs
: 11
With the introduction of a new coordinate system, it can be written
in the following way:
r

ct
r
ct
r
c;cs
;
e

ct
e
ct
e
c;cs
:

12
These results imply that the stressstrain analysis of shrunk
tension members can be performed in two alternative ways. First,
shrinkage is assessed employing a free-of-shrinkage tension-stiff-
ening relationship. Second, shrinkage effect is taken into account
by modifying the tension-stiffening relationship using Eq. (12).
(a) (b)
(d) (c)
(e) (f)
Fig. 5. Modeling of shrunk RC tensile member: linear tension-stiffening model (a); specied material law (b); shrinkage effect on load-deformation behavior (c); load-
deformation diagram neglecting shrinkage-induced deformations (d); derived constitutive model (e); transformation of tension-stiffening law (f).
1064 V. Gribniak et al. / Materials and Design 51 (2013) 10601070
Similarly in an asymmetrically reinforced member, shrinkage
effect can be modeled by means of the equivalent ctitious actions
N
cs
and M
cs
shown in Fig. 4 [20]. When the aforementioned cti-
tious shrinkage force N
cs
(t,t
0
) [Eq. (2)] acting at the centroid of
the concrete net section is applied in a non-symmetrical section,
the eccentricity results in camber of the member:
M
cs
t; t
0
N
cs
t; t
0
y
c
y
c;RC
: 13
Here y
c,RC
and y
c
are the centroid coordinates of reinforced and plain
sections, respectively.
Curvature and strain at any ber i of a non-cracked member
(Fig. 4e) due to shrinkage can be nd as
j
cs
t; t
0

M
cs
t; t
0

E
ca
t; t
0
I
tr
t; t
0

;
e
i;cs
t; t
0
j
cs
t; t
0
y
i
y
c;RC

N
cs
t; t
0

E
ca
t; t
0
A
tr
t; t
0

: 14
Here A
tr
(t,t
0
), I
tr
(t,t
0
) are the area and the second moment of area of
the transformed section, respectively.
If the member is not cracked, shrinkage-induced components of
strains (curvatures) and stresses and external bending moment M
can be calculated on the basis of the superposition principle. For
the analysis of cracked members, the non-linear procedure pro-
posed by Kaklauskas [28] can be used. The procedure is based on
the Layer section model and stressstrain material laws and is
illustrated in Fig. 6. The section is divided into n layers (Fig. 6b),
which correspond to either reinforcement or concrete taking into
account the corresponding material laws for reinforcement and
concrete, both in compression and tension. Curvature and strain
at any layer i (Fig. 6d) can be calculated by the formulae:
jt
M

cs
t M
IE
;
e
i
t
M

cs
t M
IE
y
i
y
c;RC
t
N

cs
t
AE
; 15
where
M

cs
t N

cs
ty
c
y
c;RC
;
AE b
X
n
i1
t
i
E
i;sec
; SE b
X
n
i1
t
i
y
i
E
i;sec
; IE b
X
n
i1
t
3
i
12
t
i
y
i
y
c;RC

2

E
i;sec
:
16
Here n is the total number of layers; b is the width of the section; t
i
,
y
i
and E
i,sec
are the thickness, the coordinate of centroid and the
secant deformation modulus of the i-th layer, respectively; the
coordinates of centroids of reinforced and plain concrete section
(Fig. 4a and b) calculated as follows:
y
c;RC

SE
AE

X
n
i1
t
i
y
i
E
i;sec
X
n
i1
t
i
E
i;sec
; y
c

X
n
i1
t
i
y
i
E
i;sec
l
i
X
n
i1
t
i
E
i;sec
l
i
17
Here l
i
is the factor taken as 1 and 0 for concrete and for reinforce-
ment layers, respectively. Due to changing material properties of
different layers, coordinates of the centroids y
c,RC
and y
c
vary with
increasing load and are different from those used in Eq. (13).
In analogy with tension members, the concept of the equivalent
shrinkage strain e

s;cs
t can be applied. Unlike a symmetrical sec-
tion, where e

s;cs
t can be obtained explicitly [20], for asymmetrical
sections it is recommended to be numerically dened from the
condition of equality of the steel strains calculated from the
short-term and the long-term analyses of non-cracked member:
e

cs
t e
cs
t; t
0

e
0
s;cs
t; t
0

e
0
s;cs
t
: 18
Here e
0
s;cs
t; t
0
and e
0
s;cs
t are the strains in the most strained rein-
forcement (e
s1,cs
in Fig. 4e), including and excluding creep effect,
respectively. The next section illustrates the shrinkage effect on de-
sign (serviceability prediction) results of RC in exure.
4. Shrinkage-induced errors in design of reinforced concrete
As noted, the shrinkage of concrete occurring prior to external
loading may have signicant inuence on deformations of a RC ele-
ment reducing its cracking resistance. Neglecting this effect, inter-
pretation of deformation and cracking analyses results becomes
inadequate both in constitutive analysis (based on test results of
shrunk members) and modeling. Erroneous assessment of cracking
resistance might become critical in design based on strict limita-
tion of crack width.
Although nominally known in the constitutive analysis, the
shrinkage strain must be calculated for the design purposes. This
section investigates the inuence of shrinkage variation on short-
term deection predictions on the base of the accuracy analysis re-
sults of the shrinkage prediction models performed by Gribniak
[16]. Two ages of concrete are considered: 28 days and 180 days.
At these ages, the averaged experimental shrinkage deformations
Table 2
Basic parameters of RC members.
Element h (mm) d (mm) b (mm) A
s1
(mm
2
) f
0
c
MPa E
c
(GPa) b f
y
(MPa) E
s
(GPa) p (%)
Member-1 200 200 800 32 20 200 2.00
Member-2 250 200 1000 40 32 20 500 200
(a) (b) (c) (d) (e)
Fig. 6. Deformation analysis of shrunk RC beam: cross-section (a); Layer section model (b); simulated strain (c) and stress (d) distribution in the section.
V. Gribniak et al. / Materials and Design 51 (2013) 10601070 1065
were obtained equal to 278 and 479 micro-strains, respectively
[16]. Investigating the effect of shrinkage assessment on deection
predictions, two sources of the possible inaccuracies were contem-
plated. First, the investigation deals with the constitutive modeling
stage. Second, the modeling results would be applied for the curva-
ture analysis.
4.1. Constitutive modeling
The shrinkage effect is assessed in accordance with Eq. (11) and
Fig. 5f, where shrinkage-induced stresses in concrete r
c,cs
are cal-
culated by Eq. (5). For illustration purpose, the numerical modeling
is limited by shrinkage prediction errors by the Eurocode 2 [29]
from Gribniak [16]. Assessment errors of the shrinkage-induced
stresses are determined as
Dr
c;cs
t
e
cs
tE
s
pD
cs
1
1 ntp
; nt
E
s
E
c
1 ut: 19
Here D
cs
is the relative error of shrinkage prediction; other param-
eters are given in Fig. 7 that illustrates shrinkage variation effect on
r
c,cs
deriving results.
It canbe observedfromFig. 7that widthof the predictioninterval
of Dr
c,cs
is dependent on the reinforcement ratio (p), increasing con-
tinuouslywithp upto0.8 MPa, thus amountingtoa signicant share
(up to 50%) of the tensile strength of concrete, thus, inadequate
assessment of Dr
c,cs
might signicantly distort the constitutive
modeling results. It should be noted that the prediction bounds of
Dr
c,cs
are obtained using the 95% condence intervals of inter-quar-
tile distance, i.e. only 50% of the predictions (with the 95% probabil-
ity) would be inside the lled area in Fig. 7. This uncertainty of the
shrinkage prediction results (indicated by the width of the con-
dence intervals) requires awareness in short-term constitutive
modeling based on test data with missed shrinkage measurements.
Another important issue is to know the inuence of inaccuracies in
shrinkage prediction on deformations of cracked RC members.
4.2. Curvature analysis
Analysis of the shrinkage assessment errors on the prediction of
curvatures of RC elements has been performed comparing the cur-
vatures obtained at service load. Following [30], for design of RC in
exure, the service load at average conditions can be taken as 55
60% of the ultimate bending capacity M
ult
:
M
ult
A
s1
f
y
d
y
ult
2

; y
ult

A
s1
f
y
0:85 f
0
c
b
: 20
Here y
ult
is the height of the compressive zone at failure; f
0
c
and f
y
are
the strengths of the compressive concrete and the tensile reinforce-
ment, respectively.
FromEq. (20), it can be observed that the amount of tensile rein-
forcement A
s1
inuences onthe relative value of the service moment
with respect to the cracking one (that magnitude is practically inde-
pendent onp). Inlightlyreinforcedmembers, service moment might
be well below the cracking one. The shrinkage effect assessing cur-
vatures becomes evident if the considered state approaches the re-
gion of crack initiation. After cracking, this effect steadily becomes
lower with the increasing of load and practically has no inuence
on the service behavior of moderately reinforced members.
The authors experience [30] indicates that the shrinkage effect
on curvature prediction at the service state is more evident in RC
slabs compared to that of other exural elements. Extending the
section width (in regard to the height), the cracking behavior of
the slabs, like bridge girders, is distinguished by extreme brittle-
ness. Due to sudden drop in stiffness at the cracking moment, inac-
curate assessment of shrinkage becomes critical. For this reason
such elements has been considered in the present study.
The main parameters of the investigated RC section are given in
Table 2 (Member-2). Seeking simplicity, the linear tension-stiffen-
ing law (Fig. 5a) is used for predicting curvatures. The inaccuracies
in shrinkage assessment affect the peak stress f
ct
(Fig. 5f) by a value
of Dr
c,cs
, which is assumed to be equal to that shown in Fig. 7. Three
different tensile strengths are used in the analysis: 2, 3 and 4 MPa.
The curvature prediction results are shown in Fig. 8 as a function
of the reinforcement ratio p. It is important to note that some of
the sections were very sensitive to the variation of shrinkage: the
curvature prediction errors approached values of 500% (!) of overes-
timation. Slabs made from weak concrete (f
ct
= 2 MPa) show ex-
treme vulnerability to the errors in assessing shrinkage. Besides,
the elements having a concrete tensile strength equal to 3 and
4 MPa also demonstratedquite signicant dependence onshrinkage
variation with the curvature prediction errors reaching 50%.
Fig. 9 illustrates the shrinkage variation effect on curvature pre-
dictions for a service load close to the cracking moment. The con-
dence bounds from Fig. 7 were used comparing the predicted
curvatures. It is observed that the predictions at the service load
(M
ser
) varied several times. Therefore, considering serviceability
criteria, it is vital to take the shrinkage effect into account in design
of RC slabs.
5. Reducing the shrinkage effect
As noted in Section 2, magnitude of the shrinkage depends on
the concrete mixture proportions and material properties, method
of curing, ambient temperature and humidity conditions, and
geometry of the element. Krauss and Rogalla [31] suggested that
aggregates with a low modulus of elasticity, low coefcient of ther-
mal expansion, and high thermal conductivity result in reduced
shrinkage and thermal stresses. Aggregates with a higher modulus
0
1.0
0.4
0.8
0.4
0.8
1.0
,
, MPa
c cs

0.6
0.2
0.2
0.6
Median
Confidence limits of
inter-quartile interval

c,cs
predictions for

cs
(28) =
4
(28) = 1.5
t = 28 days
0
1.0
0.4
0.8
0.4
0.8
1.0
,
, MPa
c cs

0.6
0.2
0.2
0.6
3 0 1 2 4 3 0 1 2 4

cs
(180) =
4
(180) = 2.0
t = 180 days E
s
= 200 GPa
E
c
= 32 GPa
p, % p, %
Fig. 7. The Eurocode 2 shrinkage estimation error effect predicting shrinkage-induced stresses for age of 28 (left) and 180 (right) days.
1066 V. Gribniak et al. / Materials and Design 51 (2013) 10601070
of elasticity increase the modulus of elasticity of the concrete
resulting in greater restraint to drying shrinkage deformations. Fol-
lowing Miller et al. [32] who reported recommendations on incens-
ement of the cracking resistance of bridge structures, the shrinkage
effect might be reduced by:
(1) decreasing amount of cement, for instance by increasing the
aggregate size;
(2) using retarders (for instance, y-ash), which reduce the
water requirement and hydration temperature;
(3) securing quality of pouring and curing of concrete;
(4) decreasing water-to-cement ratio;
(5) applying shrinkage-compensated admixtures.
Development of the shrinkage-induced cracks might be con-
tracted by decreasing the structural restriction of the deformations
(including amount of the reinforcement in a section). This can be
secured at the design stage by reducing spacing of construction
joints. Partially replacement of sand by saturated light-weight
aggregates reduces internal drying by releasing additional water
to un-hydrated cement particles. Russell [33] provides some prac-
tices that can reduce cracking in the decks of RC bridges:
(1) reduction of transverse bar size and spacing;
(2) reduction of concrete strength;
(3) minimizing surface evaporation from fresh concrete;
(4) application of wet curing immediately after nishing the
surface (for at least of 7 days);
(5) application of a curing compound after the wet curing.
The advantages of increased curing period include a lower per-
meability, higher degree of hydration of the cement that leads
reducing of free water content also shrinkage. Moreover, this in-
creases the tensile strength at the start of shrinking and, therefore,
the cracking resistance. One of the most preferred alternatives to
increase durability of RC structures is application of bers as an
additive [34]. Investigating shrinkage strain of the concrete mix-
ture, Gribniak in co-authorship [17] has demonstrated that the
application of the steel bers was capable of reducing the shrink-
age deformation of concrete. It can be observed that ber-rein-
0
, %
cs

f
ct
= 2 MPa f
ct
= 3 MPa f
ct
= 4 MPa
150
100
50
100
50
3 3 0 3 1 2 1 2 1 2 4 4 4
150
t = 28 days

calc obs
cs
obs

=
p, %
Median
Confidence bounds of
inter-quartile interval

cs
predictions for
3 3 0 3 1 2 1 2 1 2 4 4 4
0
, %
cs

f
ct
= 2 MPa f
ct
= 3 MPa f
ct
= 4 MPa
150
100
50
100
50
150

calc obs
cs
obs

=
490%
t = 180 days
p, %
180%
Fig. 8. The Eurocode 2 shrinkage estimation error effect on curvature prediction results for age of 28 (top) and 180 (bottom) days.
obs
0 8 16 4 12
0
8
3
, m
-1
M
ser
Moment, kNm
f
ct
= 2 MPa
p = 1.65%
6
3
cs
calc

cs
calc

+
35%
cs
=
180%
cs
=
t = 28 days
0 8 16 4 12
0
3
, m
-1
M
ser
Moment, kNm
6
3
cs
calc

cs
calc

+
= 5%
cs

= 490%
cs

t = 180 days
f
ct
= 2 MPa
p = 1.35%
Fig. 9. Variations in curvature predictions due to errors of shrinkage assessment.
V. Gribniak et al. / Materials and Design 51 (2013) 10601070 1067
forced concrete with 1% of bers by volume has shrunk almost 10%
less than the ordinary one.
Fig. 10 presents the shrinkage predictions by the Eurocode 2 [29]
for ordinary and ber-reinforced concretes. This gure also gives
the 95% condence intervals of the expectation. Keeping in mind
that a prediction method is assumed to be precise (with 95% prob-
ability), if the condence interval covers unity, it can be stated that
in both cases the Eurocode 2 underestimates the shrinkage
(Fig. 10), but the predictions seem to be more accurate for ber-
concrete. This statement was statistically proven by Gribniak
et al. [17] supporting the results obtained by Swamy and Stavrides
[35] who reported the 15. . .20% reduction of shrinkage in presence
of 1% of steel bers. Barr et al. [36] found that this effect gradually
grows with increasing the compressive strength of concrete above
30 MPa and is dependent on shape of bers [37,38].
However, it should be pointed out that magnitude of the shrink-
age strain is not an objective measure of bers effectiveness in
solving the shrinkage problems. Not the free shrinkage strains,
but the cracking associated with the restrained shrinkage is the
key parameter that should be considered [39]. Shah et al. [40] re-
ported that 0.5% (by volume) of steel bers reduced the average
crack width by 90%. The authors obtained analogous results. It
was found that the effectiveness of ber reinforcement steady in-
creases with increasing the bers content from 0.3% to 1.0%. Above
this limit, the effectiveness of bers is decreased [22,23].
6. Discussion of the results
Europe has a large capital investment in the road network
including bridges, which are the most vulnerable element. In the
United Kingdom, France, Germany, Norway, Slovenia and Spain
in 19981999 from almost 500,000 highway bridges more than
30% needed to be repaired [41]. In recent years, awareness of
cracking in bridge decks has been increased in the USA. The crack-
ing has been recognized as a major and most costly problem for
highway structures. According to a study conducted by Federal
Highway Administration (USA) in 2005, the amount of the nations
590,750 bridges rated structurally decient or functionally obso-
lete was 27.5% [42]. Following the ASCE report [43], it will cost
$9.4 billion a year for 20 years to eliminate the structural
deciencies.
For mitigating shrinkage-induced deciencies in concrete struc-
tures, the authors recommend:
(1) To reduce the cement contents or replace it by expansive
cements. Such reduction should be performed very carefully,
taking into consideration the serviceability analysis results,
reported in this paper.
(2) To increase the size of aggregates and their deformation
modulus.
(3) To introduce the shrinkage reducing admixtures, and to
reduce water-to-cement ratio. The later requirement should
be performed in accordance with the mixture workability
demand.
(4) From the structural point-of-view, the design practice would
aim at reducing structural restraints and stiffness of the
reinforcement. The latter can be achieved by decreasing
amount of reinforcement or by replacing steel bars with
composite reinforcement having lower modulus of elasticity
[1].
It is also important that modern high-strength concrete tends to
crack more easily due to lower creep and higher thermal shrinkage,
drying shrinkage, and elastic modulus in respect to normal
strength mixtures. This signicantly complicates design and main-
tenance of modern structures.
Beyond the uncertainties associated with the creep and shrink-
age characteristics of concrete, which are undoubtedly the biggest
obstacle to the improvement in the accuracy of deformation pre-
dictions, there are further uncertainties contributing to the defor-
mation problem in reinforced concrete structures. It seems
evident that the shrinkage prediction models can be found in rea-
sonable agreement when the parameters are in the range which is
typical for an experimental setup in a laboratory. The availability of
sufcient experimental data within that range provides a more so-
lid basis for adjusting the theoretical models and the degree of
uncertainty is smaller. In order to assess the effect of uncertainties
during the constructions of early-age concrete properties (in re-
paired structures or bridge barrier wall over the existing slab) or
restraining action in bridge structures on the total stress state, fu-
ture work on high-strength concrete should focus on growing ten-
sile strength, and the modulus of elasticity of concrete in bridge
structures immediately after pouring.
It should be pointed out that empirical design code techniques
indirectly include the shrinkage effect. In the numerical modeling,
shrinkage can be taken into account in two ways: directly or indi-
rectly. In the rst case, it can be assessed as a prescribed deforma-
tion or as a ctitious force. This analysis should be based on
4
1
2
0.5
0 7 40 14 28 60 90
0.25
Age, days
Fiber-concrete
=
,
,

cs calc
cs
cs obs

4
1
2
0.5
0.25
Age, days
Ordinary concrete
=
,
,

cs calc
cs
cs obs

21 0 7 40 14 28 60 90 21
Confidence interval Confidence interval
(a) (b)
Fig. 10. Comparison of the Eurocode 2 shrinkage predictions with experimental measurements of ordinary (a) and ber reinforced (b) concretes.
1068 V. Gribniak et al. / Materials and Design 51 (2013) 10601070
constitutive models with eliminated shrinkage effect. Alternatively
(as it is done in the common design practice), analysis is performed
using the material laws where tension-stiffening is coupled with
shrinkage. However, the shrinkage is among the most unconvinced
mechanical properties of concrete. Therefore, such coupled ten-
sion-stiffening diagrams always contain a certain amount of
uncertainness.
Considering the shrinkage effect at the pre-loading stage, it was
indicated that shrinkage might signicantly affect both deforma-
tion prediction results and constitutive models under derivation.
Inaccurate assessment of the shrinkage effect in constitutive mod-
eling may result in signicant errors in predicting deformations of
reinforced concrete. To take the shrinkage effect into account in the
constitutive modeling, the shrinkage strain of concrete has to be
known. If no specic tests are performed, it must be predicted.
Therefore, it is important for structural designers to know accuracy
of shrinkage prediction models, especially at the stage of constitu-
tive modeling. Such investigation could be considered as a topic for
further research.
Investigating the serviceability of reinforced concrete in exure,
there are two key aspects that inuence the analysis of curvature:
the reinforcement ratio and tension-stiffening modeling. The
amount of tensile reinforcement in a section inuences on the rel-
ative value of the service moment with respect to the cracking one
reducing amount of reinforcement in the tension zone, the ser-
vice moment might become well below the cracks initiation limit.
Extending the section width (in regard to the height), the cracking
behavior of the slabs, like bridge decks, becomes extremely brittle.
Due to sudden drop in stiffness at the cracking moment, inaccurate
assessment of the shrinkage effect might become critical. In pres-
ent research, the deection prediction errors approached values
of 500% (!). Slabs made from weak concrete (having the tensile
strength equal to 2 MPa) show dangerous vulnerability to variation
in the shrinkage assessments. Actually, this determines conditions
for the design of reinforced concrete slabs, where reduction of ce-
ment (as recommended to decrease the shrinkage deformations),
and so strength, might be followed by the critical inaccuracies
assessing deformations.
In last decades, steel bers are widely used as additive for con-
crete and cement mortar mixtures for solving the shrinkage-in-
duced problems in reinforced concrete structures. This study
indicates that application of steel bers might become an effective
means to decrease the shrinkage-induced cracking in concrete ele-
ments. The study has indicated that application of 1% (by volume)
bers reduce the shrinkage deformations by almost 10%. The
authors have found that increment of the bers content from
0.3% to 1.0% (by volume) steadily increases effectiveness of such
type of reinforcement producing almost twice reduction of the
crack width.
7. Conclusions
Present study deals with concrete shrinkage and accompanying
creep inuence on cracking resistance and deformations of struc-
tural elements. It was found that serviceability characteristics of
reinforced concrete elements at the design stage might be im-
proved by specifying: (1) concrete mixture proportions; (2)
mechanical properties of aggregates; (3) method of curing; (4)
ambient temperature and humidity conditions; (5) geometry of
the structural element. For mitigating the crack development in
reinforced concrete structures, the authors recommend to reduce
cement contents or replace it by expansive binders, to use larger
aggregates with higher elastic modulus in combination with the
shrinkage reducing admixtures, and to minimize the water-to-ce-
ment ratio in accordance with the requirement on workability of
concrete mixture. From the structural point-of-view, the design
practice would aim at reducing structural restraints and stiffness
of the reinforcement. The latter can be achieved by decreasing
amount of reinforcement or by replacing steel bars with composite
bars having lower modulus of elasticity.
Considering the serviceability criteria, it was shown that deec-
tion prediction errors due to inaccurate assessment of the shrink-
age effect may reach 500% (ve times!). The restrained shrinkage
effect should be taken into consideration in design of reinforced
concrete slabs. Application of steel bers as additive for concrete
mixture might be recommended to reduce the shrinkage-induced
cracking.
Investigating the inuence of steel bers on shrinkage deforma-
tions, it was found that application of 1% (90 kg/m
3
) of bers re-
duces shrinkage deformations by almost 10%. Combination of
steel bers with ordinary reinforcement signicantly increases
cracking resistance of concrete structures.
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the nancial support pro-
vided by the Research Council of Lithuania (Project No. MIP-083/
2012) and the European Social Fund (Project No. VP1-3.1-MM-
08-K-01-020).
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