Size effect on the ultimate drying shrinkage of concrete - Experimental evidence and engineering practice

Abstract

The design and behavior of creep-sensitive structures can be to a large extent dependent on the evolution of drying shrinkage. Drying shrinkage of concrete measured on standard laboratory specimens is very time demanding, furthermore, the extrapolation based on the short-term measurements is an ill-posed problem and can lead to large errors. Additionally, the final magnitude of shrinkage is size-dependent which makes the transition from the laboratory data to real structure even more challenging. The present paper evaluates this size effect based on the data gathered in the Creep and shrinkage database developed at the Northwestern university and the data from the literature. Finally, this size effect is compared against the current codes of practice and recommendations.