Influence of the environment and loading age on SCC drying creep

Resumen

The creep in concrete is a phenomenon that occurs due the water movement within the concrete and it is influenced by several factors that act simultaneously. Some of these factors are the environmental conditions (relative humidity and temperature) to which the element or the specimen is submitted. This paper compares the experimental results from drying creep of specimens loaded at different ages and kept in a controlled environment (climatic chamber) versus those from an uncontrolled ambience. In addition, comparisons are made among the experimental results with those from prediction models available in the literature. From the results it can be noted that changes in humidity during the first month of testing have the greatest influence on creep and that concrete loaded at higher ages have lower creep. Regarding the prediction models, it was observed that the ACI and GL models are those that best antecipate creep occurrence.