Investigation of the Nonlinear Creep of Concrete with Different Initial Defect Rates under Continuous Compression with Acoustic Emission Technology

Abstract

The available models for estimating the creep strains of concrete generally assume concrete as a homogeneous material. Since concrete is a composite, such models cannot take into account incompatible strains between cement paste and aggregates during creep loading. The main objective of this paper is to demonstrate that initial defects could increase the creep strain level and justify the application of a coupling between creep and damage at the macroscopic scale. To do so, different contents of air-entraining agent were used to simulate the internal defects of concrete and high-stress continuous load was applied to concrete samples with different initial defects. By analyzing the stress-strain curves of concretes containing different initial defects after compression, it was concluded that the existence of internal defects had a significant effect on the basic mechanical properties of concrete samples. Acoustic emission technology was used to obtain the internal acoustic emission response of concrete samples under high stress. Creep development rate is nonlinear to load holding level based on the analysis of experimental data and internal structure of concrete samples.