Investigation of the Significance of Factors Affecting Long-Term Creep of Concrete using Screening Designs

Abstract

Abstract Creep has a main role in predicting delayed strain in concrete members and in estimating losses in prestressed concrete, such as nuclear containment vessels, bridges girders, etc. For that, the interest in studying creep has grown significantly. This study aims to investigate the significance of different factors affecting creep of concrete using the Northwestern University (NU) creep database. Experiments have been carried out at different conditions of water-cement ratio (w/c), aggregate-cement ratio (a/c), cement content (c), cement type (R or RS), admixtures, mean compressive strength (fcm), volume-surface ratio (v/s), relative humidity (RH), age at loading (t0) and stress level (sigma). In order to determine the significance of these factors, three statistical methods have been used: Daniel Plot, Lenth Plot and Bayesian screening. The results of this analysis can be used to build accurate computational models to predict creep of concrete by considering the major effects identified.