Tensile creep of fly ash concrete at early age considering the young's modulus development

Tensile properties are important for predicting tensile stress which causes thermal cracking. Fly ash, a by-product from coal-fired power plants, has been recently used to reduce such thermal cracks. However, investigations dealing with tensile properties of fly ash concrete are still limited. This study focuses on the tensile properties of concrete mixed with fly ash at an early age. Fly ash was mixed in general purpose concrete with a cement-replacement ratio of 20% by mass to simulate fly ash concrete used in Japan. To examine tensile Young's modulus and tensile creep, direct tension test was conducted using dog-bone shaped specimens. The tensile creep tests were conducted at the age of 3 days or 7 days, and the loading (30% of splitting tensile strength at the loading age) was sustained for 14 days. Past investigations usually assumed a constant elastic strain during creep test. It should be noted however that elastic strain at early age decreases with the age of concrete as hydration continues. This study takes a consideration of Young's modulus development during creep test to distinguish actual creep and elastic strains. Test results show that creep strain has been underestimated when assuming constant elastic strain.