Creep and shrinkage in concrete

In addition to deformation due to loads, they also undergo creep, when subjected to sustained load, and shrinkage, which takes place even in the absence of load. Generally, volume change is often used to refer to creep, shrinkage and possibly, even chemical disintegration.

SHRINKAGE
They are of two types Plastic shrinkage Drying shrinkage

Plastic shrinkage
The hydration of cement causes a reduction in the volume of the system of water and cement to extent of about 1% of the volume of dry cement. On addition, it is made worse due to the loss of water by evaporation under hot climate and high wind. (This occurs when the concrete is still wet)

Drying shrinkage
The shrinkage that take place after the concrete has set and hardened is called drying shrinkage. Most of it takes place in first few months which coincides with period of active creep. It is mainly caused by evaporation of water from unsaturated air pockets, which can be recovered on immersion of concrete in water. This is called moisture movement.

The rate of shrinkage decreases with time. The test indicates that 14-24% of 20-year shrinkage occurs in two weeks, 40-70% in 3 months and 66-80% in 1 year.

Shrinkage of an Unloaded Specimen

Factors affecting shrinkage

Water-cement ratio It increases with increase in the water-cement ratio. Cement content It increase with cement content but is interrelated to water-cement ratio to maintain workability. It is not much affected when water content per unit volume is constant.

 Ambient humidity It increases with the decrease in humidity and the immersion in water causes expansion. Type of aggregate The aggregate which exhibit moisture movement themselves and have low elastic modulus cause large shrinkage. Size and shape of specimen Both rate and ultimate magnitude of shrinkage decreases with surface/volume ratio of the specimen.

 Type of cement The rapid-hardening cement shrinks somewhat more than the others. Admixtures The shrinkage increases with the addition of calcium chloride and reduces with lime replacement. Other factors The steam curing has little affect, unless applied at high pressure.

Carbonation shrinkage
Carbon dioxide present in atmosphere reacts in the presence of moisture with the hydrated cement minerals, carbonating calcium hydroxide to calcium carbonate. Carbonation penetrates beyond the surface slowly, and its accompanied by increase in weight and shrinkage. The shrinkage due to carbonation mainly takes place at intermediate humidity.

It also results in increased strength and reduced permeability. When the shrinkage is restrained partly or fully due to internal (i.e. aggregate or reinforcement) or external restraints, tensile stresses leading to cracking develops on concrete. When the restrains are eccentric, warping could occur leading to shrinkage deflection of member.

Perhaps the only advantage of shrinkage is that it causes the concrete to grip the reinforcing steel tightly, thus increasing the bond.

Creep of concrete
The increase of strain in concrete with time under sustained stress is termed creep. The shrinkage and creep occur simultaneously and they are assumed to be additive for simplicity. When the sustained load is removed, the strain decreases immediately by an amount equal to the elastic strain at the given age.

This instantaneous recovery is then followed by a gradual decrease in strain, called creep recovery which Is a part of total creep stain suffered by the concrete. If the loaded concrete specimen is viewed as being subjected to a constant strain, the creep decreases the stress progressively with time. This is called relaxation.

The rate of creep decreases with time and the creep strains attained at a period of five years are usually taken as terminal values. While 8085% shrinkage strain occurs in six months, only about 75% of creep stains occurs in 12 months. Both shrinkage and creep are not completely reversible. All the factors which influence shrinkage influence creep also in similar way.

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Sahil Dev 071615 Ugyen Norbu 071618