The creep of concrete under uniaxial tension

Abstract

Summary Tests are reported on the strain of concrete under sustained uniaxial tensile stress. The effects on this strain of the level of stress, the time under load, the age of loading and the humidity of storage are examined and compared with the behaviour under compressive stress. In general, the influence of the factors was much the same for both senses of stress but differences were found in the rates of creep, in the magnitudes of the strains under saturated conditions of storage and in the shape of the recovery curve after removal of load. Finally, two further tests are reported which indicate that the strains under a cycle of tension or compression are unaffected by a previous cycle under a stress of opposite sense.