Interaction between drying, shrinkage, creep and cracking phenomena in concrete

In this paper, a hydro-mechanical model, accounting for the full coupling of drying, shrinkage, creep and cracking is presented. In this model, a new basic creep constitutive law, based on microscopic considerations of the role of water, is elaborated. Further, the existing model for drying creep of Bažant and Chern is improved by the introduction of a second material parameter which accounts for the interaction between the solid skeleton and liquid water layers in a drying and creeping material. The model is, thereafter, used for investigating the effect of cracking on the delayed behavior of concrete and displaying the frontier between the intrinsic behavior of the material and the structural effects.