Effect of Transient Creep on Behavior of Reinforced Concrete Beams in a Fire

Abstract

When concrete is subjected to elevated temperatures under a state of compressive stresses, it experiences transient creep. Although it is particularly relevant to the behavior of columns that most of the time are under a state of compression, its effects on the behavior of beams has hardly attracted any interest. Yet, in a real fire situation, it is possible for a beam to be subject to intensive heat on the compressive face. Using a previously developed finite element code, which is capable of considering transient creep either explicitly as an additional strain rate component or implicitly through the deformation properties of concrete, a systematic study on its effects on the behavior of beams is presented. It was found that transient creep does not have an effect on simply supported beams heated on the tensile face. On the other hand, when both the load and the heating are applied on the compressive face, transient creep has a major effect on the deformational behavior of the beam.