Effect of shrinkage restraint on deflections of reinforced self-compacting concrete beams

This paper presents the results of a study aimed at investigating the effects of restrained shrinkage on the in-plane deflection behavior of reinforced beams cast with self-compacting concrete. The load-deflection data from the tests on two sets of heavily-reinforced concrete beams were analyzed. The first set of beams was made with self-compacting concrete while conventionally vibrated concrete with shrinkage reducing admixture was used in the second set. It was found out that the first set underwent shrinkage cracking at early ages and this cracking caused the member responses of the beams to be closer to the fully-cracked response at the initial stages of loading. The second set of beams was found to have initial responses approximate to the uncracked response and the maximum shrinkage restraint stresses were calculated to be in the order of 20–40% of the modulus of rupture of concrete. The maximum shrinkage-induced restraint stress expressions of the AS 3600-2001, AS 3600-2009, EC2, and CSA A23.3-04 codes were found to underestimate the restraint stresses developed in the first set, yet the estimates from code solutions were in closer agreement with the experimental values in the second set.