Creep of Mass Concrete at Early Ages

Abstract

A series of early‐age creep tests was conducted on mass‐concrete mixtures to be used in the construction of locks and dams. Tests were conducted to determine creep at ages of loading from 18 h through several days. While there is a significant data base for the material properties of mass concrete at later ages, there are very few data for the early‐age creep properties of mass concrete. A discussion of the test procedures and the findings of this investigation are reported. The creep response of mass concretes with different mixture proportions or constituents can be vastly different. Since no universally applicable constituent‐based model of early‐age mass‐concrete creep response is known to exist, early‐age creep tests should be conducted for any concrete mixture or application for which it is an important parameter. The development of models capable of accurately predicting early‐age creep response from constituent properties should be a high‐priority research item in concrete technology.