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Gerard Car
Managing Director, Strand7 Pty Ltd Technical Director, Strand7 Software Development
Creep
Creep is the term used to describe a material that deforms plastically when it is held at a constant load for long periods, particularly when the load does not produce instantaneous plastic deformation. It is more severe in materials that are held at high temperatures.
Strain Equation
Creep
Dependent on stress and temperature. Can also be dependent on either time or strain. Occurs over time but is not considered to be a dynamic effect: Hence the Quasi-Static Solver is ideal for solving creep problems. Creep behaviour can also be considered in the Nonlinear Transient Dynamic solver, if inertia effects are required.
Stages of Creep
Creep laws supported in Strand7 consider primary and/or secondary creep.
User-defined Creep
Allows for the creep behaviour to be defined by one or more tables.
Strain vs Time
(t ) = e ( ) + c (t , ) + sh (t )
(t ) = e ( ) + c (t , ) + sh (t )
The instantaneous strain is usually taken to be elastic and hence to depend on the stress and the elastic modulus at time of loading. The creep strain depends on the stress and the age at the time of loading, t, as well as on the period of loading, t. The shrinkage strain depends on the age t of the concrete, as measured from the time of casting or completion of curing.
(t )
Concrete Shrinkage
Concrete shrinkage is related to the drying process which involves the evaporation of absorbed water. Shrinkage is a time-dependent strain. Unlike creep, shrinkage is independent of load/stress levels. It is also possible for negative shrinkage (i.e. swelling) to occur when dry concrete is exposed to moist atmosphere. Factors that influence shrinkage include: Humidity Temperature Concrete Composition Exposed Surfaces
Codes
Commonly used concrete creep and shrinkage codes are: ACI 209 (American) CEB-FIP (1990) (European) BS 8110 (British) AS 3600 (Australian)
Although Strand7 is not code-specific, all these (and other) codes are supported due to the flexible nature of the Strand7 creep solver.
Curve fitting technique Creep function Kelvin Chain Relaxation function Maxwell Chain
Default Age at First Loading value. Used when not applied at the attribute level.