An experimental study of basic creep of High Strength Concrete

Most of the reported work on creep of High Strength Concrete (HSC) covers measurements of total creep on standard specimens kept in a standard environment of 50% RH and 23degreesC. The results of these studies are used to establish basic creep factor of HSC assuming environmental effect on creep of HSC is similar to that for normal strength concrete (NSC). However, some recent work has shown that the effect of environment on creep of HSC is different to that observed for NSC, which indicates that a realistic creep model for HSC needs to be developed based on a more fundamental material behaviour. This paper reports the details and the results of an experimental study conducted at RMIT University to investigate the basic creep of HSC and equivalent mortar. The results indicate that existing models for basic creep of NSC cannot be used to predict the behaviour of HSC. A more fundamental analysis and a mathematical model are proposed.