A prediction approach of concrete properties at early ages by using a thermal stress device

Abstract

The material properties of concrete are greatly influenced by age, temperature, humidity and loading history, particularly at early ages. However, concrete properties are often predicted using prediction models or a few experiments at a construction site, which can not consider these influential factors, causing a great difference between actual and predicted properties. This paper presents an approach to predict various concrete properties with simple laboratory experiments to minimize the differences in the concrete properties due to the curing conditions. In this approach, the concrete properties were determined by comparing the experimental data with the analytical results. The thermal expansion coefficient, elastic modulus, autogenous shrinkage, and creep coefficient were predicted by optimizing the equations of each material property. In addition, the predicted concrete properties were verified with those obtained from various experiments for elastic modulus, autogenous shrinkage and stress-independent strain. The elastic modulus, autogenous shrinkage, and stress-independent strain were mostly predicted within a 10% error range. Therefore, this study confirms that the proposed approach can be used to predict concrete properties at early ages, that are greatly influenced by various factors.