Structures 5 (2016) 112

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Structures

journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/structures

Geometrically and materially nonlinear creep behaviour of reinforced

concrete columns
Ehab Hamed a,, Cynthia Lai b
a
Center for Infrastructure Engineering and Safety, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, Australia
b
Higher Honour Student, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, Australia

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A mathematical model is developed, which considers creep at the nonlinear range of stresses, shrinkage, aging,
Received 6 April 2015 cracking, and the geometric nonlinearity in reinforced concrete columns. Creep is modelled through the modied
Received in revised form 7 July 2015 principle of superposition that is based on the use of a stress-dependent compliance function. The governing
Accepted 7 July 2015
equations are solved through numerical integration in time and the multiple-shooting method for the solution
Available online 16 July 2015
in space. An iterative procedure is used for convergence at each time step. A numerical study is conducted,
Keywords:
which reveals the importance of considering the combined geometric and material nonlinear effects in the
Buckling creep analysis of concrete columns.
Columns 2015 The Institution of Structural Engineers. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Concrete
Creep
Nonlinear
Viscoelasticity

1. Introduction
Reinforced concrete (RC) columns are subjected to eccentric vertical
compression forces in general, and their failure is sudden and drastic,
which can be a result of buckling, material failure, or a combination of
both due to the interaction between the material and geometric nonlin-
earities. However, in most cases, a considerable portion of the total load
acting on RC columns can be classied as sustained compression load.
When this load is combined with the normal construction inaccuracies
and load eccentricities, the column undergoes increasing out-of-plane
deection with time due to creep. This may consequently lead to loss
of stability (creep buckling) under a sustained load that is signicantly
smaller than the short-term load carrying capacity. However, creep
may not necessarily lead to buckling failure, but it may lead to prema-
ture creep rupture failures of the concrete or may reduce the residual
strength of the column due to the increased internal stresses and strains
with time.
In most cases RC columns are subjected to low levels of serviceability
sustained stresses where sophisticated linear creep models in compres-
sion can be used to predict the structural response. Many theoretical
and experimental studies can be found in the literature regarding the
Corresponding author. Tel.: +61 2 93859765; fax: +61 2 93859747.
E-mail address: e.hamed@unsw.edu.au (E. Hamed).
creep behaviour of concrete at low level of stresses (less than 30% the
compressive strength, fcm), where the creep strain is linearly propor-
tional to the applied stress [4,22,36]. The creep strains (creep in these
cases can be described by means of a stress-independent creep coef-
cient t; t 0 that describes the ratio between the creep strain at time t
and the instantaneous strain (ins at time t0, as shown in Fig. 1, which
shows a typical stress ( versus strain ( curve of concrete. However,
in some cases, the level of sustained stresses (locally or globally) can ex-
ceed the linear limit. In such cases where the stress levels are above 30%
of the compressive strength, not only the instantaneous strain becomes
nonlinear with respect to the applied stress, but also the creep strain
and the creep coefcient, and they both increase with the increase in
the applied load level. A study by Rossi et al. [40] showed that the
main physical reason for this phenomenon is attributed to cracking
evolution, i.e., creation of microcracks and/or the propagation of
macrocracks.
One of the simplest ways to account for nonlinear creep in structural
design and analysis is based on the use of the instantaneous nonlinear
stressstrain relation of concrete along with a stress-dependent creep
coefcient or a stress-dependent compliance function as shown in
Fig. 1 ([7,9,14,18,20,25]). For stresses that are greater than around 80%
of the compressive strength, nonlinear stress-dependent creep still con-
trols the response but with potential creep rupture failures with time
once the total strain exceeds a certain limit dened through a creep rup-
ture envelop as shown in Fig. 1 [20,37,43]. Therefore, knowledge

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.istruc.2015.07.001
2352-0124/ 2015 The Institution of Structural Engineers. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
2 E. Hamed, C. Lai / Structures 5 (2016) 112
Fig. 1. Stressstrain curve of concrete.
regarding the nonlinear creep behaviour of concrete and its inuence on
the load carrying capacity of RC columns is essential for a more reliable
prediction of their long-term time-dependent response.
A number of studies have been devoted to investigate the linear
creep and shrinkage effects in RC columns ([10,23,30,31,41]). These
studies considered the geometrically nonlinear effects, but they were
limited to compressive stress levels that are relatively low, i.e., less
than 30% the compressive strength of concrete that are within the linear
range of the stressstrain curve (Fig. 1). Gilbert [23] presented an itera-
tive step-by-step procedure for the nonlinear analysis of slender RC col-
umns under sustained eccentric loading. The time dependent creep and
shrinkage effects were included using the age adjusted effective modu-
lus method for the analysis of critical cross sections including the effects
of cracking. Samra [41] developed a simple approach to predict creep
deformations in RC columns at service loads. The model accounts for
age effects, concrete mix composition, and dependence of creep on
member size and humidity. The model was compared to laboratory
test data, as well as to creep strain measurements taken from existing
structures in Chicago.
A nite element step-by step analysis was performed by Kawano
and Warner [30], which accounted for the geometric nonlinearity.
The method was found to effectively describe the time dependent
behaviour including non-uniform shrinkage and creep buckling of
slender columns. However there was no consideration of stress ap-
plications in the nonlinear range. Bradford et al. [11] incorporated a
step by step analysis into a layered nonlinear nite element method,
for the analysis of general RC structures. The method accounted for
the geometric nonlinearities, including the effects of creep, shrink-
age and aging of the concrete. The method was used in Bradford
[10] for the analysis of RC columns. However it does not account
for the material nonlinearity in compression, and did not consider
cracking of the concrete.
A simple numerical model that accounts for the geometric nonline-
arity and the cracking of concrete using a layered approach was devel-
oped by Kwak and Kim [31] for the creep analysis of slender RC
columns. The results were compared to experimental data from
Drysdale and Huggins [17]. The study found that high strength concrete
is less effective in slender columns than in short columns due to the sig-
nicant decrease in the load carrying capacity as a result of the pro-
nounced geometrically nonlinear effects. Following this study, a
simple regression formula for the design of slender RC columns was
proposed in Kwak and Kim [32]. Huang and Hamed [29] developed a
nonlinear theoretical model that is based on a rheological generalized
Maxwell chain modelling of the creep of concrete in high-strength con-
crete panels. The model is applicable for RC columns under low stress
levels as it accounts for the geometric nonlinearity, cracking, and ten-
sion stiffening, but does not account for nonlinear creep at high stress
levels.
On the other hand, only few studies have considered the creep re-
sponse of RC columns including the effects of the geometric nonlinearity
of the structure, and the material nonlinearity of concrete that appears
at compressive stresses greater than 30% of its compressive strength.
Mauch and Holley [34] presented a simplied model that is based on a
number of approximations that may not provide a reliable description
of the structural behaviour. These include the linearized mathematical
modelling of the geometric nonlinearity, and the modelling of concrete
using a basic Maxwell model with a single spring and dashpot, which
does not provide a good representation of concrete behaviour. Baant
and Tsubaki [8] modelled the nonlinear creep of RC columns using a
previously developed constitutive model by Baant and Kim [6]. The
model accounts for the increase of creep at high compressive stress
(ow) and also the decrease of creep for subsequent load increments
(adaption) caused by low sustained compressive stress. While the anal-
ysis showed a reasonable comparison to test data, the creep function
was expressed as a function of time only and did not consider the mag-
nication caused by the nonlinear material behaviour at high stress
levels. In addition, the endochronic model adopted in Baant and Kim
[6] actually involves a relatively large number of parameters that are
not easy to obtain, making it too complex to use for the analysis and de-
sign of RC structures. Furthermore, cracking, shrinkage and aging effects
were not considered.
Claeson and Gylltoft [16] performed tests on normal and high
strength concrete columns. An analysis was performed using a
moment-curvature curve approach and a cross-sectional analysis con-
sidering creep, based on the CEB-FIP model (1990) and a modied
curve by Han [28] for high strength concrete. The nonlinear creep effects
were accounted for by multiplying the creep coefcient by a magnica-
tion factor. The model showed partial agreement with test data. Howev-
er, shrinkage effects were disregarded and the second order effects were
taken into account by assuming a sine curve deection shape, which can
be inaccurate when cracks develop or when the compressive stresses
reach the nonlinear range at some locations. In addition, the inuence
of the variable stress history, which is important in slender RC columns
due to the geometric nonlinearity, was not considered through a time-
stepping analysis, and the nal stage of the column was assumed to
be reached in one time step. Therefore, a more rened model is needed
for a more reliable prediction of the structural behaviour.
In the design of RC columns, the effect of creep is included using sim-
plied methods (see for example ACI318 [2] and AS3600 [3]). The ap-
proach adopted in these design standards is based on reducing the
stiffness required for calculating the buckling load of the column by a
factor of 1/(1+), where is the ratio between the sustained and the
total loads. Bearing in mind that different concretes creep differently
in time, and the fact that the creep properties are not accounted for be-
cause the inuence of creep is only introduced through the load ratio
(), it can be seen that the existing design standards may lead to inaccu-
rate estimation of the member strength. The interaction between creep,
cracking, and material nonlinearity are also not considered.
It can be seen that the existing numerical models do not comprehen-
sively account for the combined effects of nonlinear creep, shrinkage,
aging, geometric nonlinearity, and cracking. Here, these effects are con-
sidered through the development of an incremental nonlinear numeri-
cal model that is based on a step-by-step time analysis. Through the
time stepping procedure, the model is capable of describing the time-
dependent change of the internal stresses, the incremental cracking
and material softening, and the increase of the deformations with
time. In previous studies conducted by the rst author [24,25], a full
nonlinear viscoelastic model that is based on the modied principle of
superposition [33] was developed for the nonlinear creep analysis of
RC beams. The model accounted for nonlinear creep, shrinkage, aging,
and yielding of the steel reinforcement, through an incremental time-
stepping analysis. This model depends on a fewer number of parame-
ters than other models in the literature developed for describing the
nonlinear viscoelastic behaviour of concrete (see for example Baant
 E. Hamed, C. Lai / Structures 5 (2016) 112 3

and Asghari [5], Papa et al. [38], Mazzotti and Savoia [35], Bockhold The basic nonlinear equilibrium equations of the column can be
[12]), and which can be taken from design standards or can be easily found in many textbooks of structural mechanics (see for example Ti-
measured in the laboratory. However, the models by Hamed [24,25] moshenko and Gere [46]), or can be derived using equilibrium from
are based on the rheological generalized Maxwell model that only pro- Fig. 2(b). An incremental form of the equations at t t k t k1 be-
vides an approximate representation of the effects of aging of concrete, comes [29]:
and they did not include the geometric nonlinear effects that are critical
in RC columns. N;x n 2
The nonlinear modied principle of superposition is also adopted in
this study but in its integral form. Although being computationally ex-
M;xx qNw;x w;x N Nw;x ;x 3
pensive to save the entire stress history, the sensitivity of the creep
buckling response to many parameters calls for a sophisticated model-
ling of the aging effects, which can be best demonstrated through inte- where N and M are the axial force and bending moment, respectively; q
gral laws [26,27]. The model, which is described in detail in Section 2, is and n are external distributed loads (see Fig. 2). The boundary condi-
based on using the instantaneous stressstrain relation of concrete tions are given by:
along with stress-dependent creep coefcient. The governing differen-
tial equations of the RC column are presented, and are solved numeri- N Ni or u u 4
cally at each time step. An iterative procedure is used for the
determination of the column rigidities at each time step. A numerical M;x N Nw;x w;x N V i or w w 5
study and a comparison of the model with test results from the litera-
ture are presented.
M Mi or w;x 6
2. Mathematical formulation
where u, w and are prescribed deformations at the edges; Ni, Vi, and
The sign conventions for the structure including the internal loads Mi (i = 0 or H) are forces and moments at the edges (Fig. 2(a));
and displacements are shown in Fig. 2. For the incremental time = 1 for x = 0 and = 1 for x = H.
stepping approach, the time t, which refers to the time from rst
loading, is subdivided into nt discrete time steps with t k1 t k1 t k 2.1. Constitutive relations
(k = 0,1,2,,nt). The nonlinear incremental kinematic relation of the
column takes the following form at tk+1: The constitutive relations are based on the modied principle of su-
perposition in order to account for the material nonlinearity in com-
1 pression, as well as exural cracking in tension. This approach was
u;x zw;xx w;2x w;x w;x 1 developed for studying the nonlinear viscoelastic response of polymers
2
[21,33,39], with application to reinforced concrete in Hamed [24,25]. It
was shown by Findley et al. [21] that the modied principle of superpo-
where is the total strain that includes the viscoelastic strain v (instan-
sition can be derived from the multiple integral method, and it also pro-
taneous ins + creep creep ) and the stress-independent shrinkage strain
vides a special case to Schapery's model [42]. However, it is preferred
sh , i.e., v sh ; u and w are the longitudinal and out-of-plane dis-
here because it overcomes the difculties associated with the evaluation
placements respectively, z is measured positive from the mid-thickness
of a large number of kernel functions in the multiple integral method,
of the column from right to left (see Fig. 2), and ( );x denotes a derivative
while still describing the behaviour of different materials with accept-
with respect to x. All functions without the operator hereafter are ac-
able accuracy. Following this method, the viscoelastic strain takes this
tually known quantities from the previous time step.
form:

Z Z
t
g ; t; t 0 d t 0 0 t
d t 0 0
v t dt J ; t; t 0 dt 7
0 t 0 dt0 0 dt0
(a) (b)
where g is a nonlinear function that represents the viscoelastic strain at
time t under a constant stress applied at time t 0 , is the normal stress,
and J g= is the nonlinear compliance modulus.
Using the trapezoidal numerical integral rule, and assuming a con-
stant stress within each time interval (t), the total strain at time tk
takes the following form:

Xk  
J t k ; t i1 ; i1 J t k ; t i ; i
t k J t k ; t 0 ; 0 0 i i1
i1
2
sh t k 8

where j refers to the stress at time tj (j = 0,1, 2,, nt). The strain at time
tk+1 is given by:

t k1 J t k1 ; t 0 ; 0 0
X
k1  
J t k1 ; t i1 ; i1 J t k1 ; t i ; i
i i1 sh t k1 :
i1
2
Fig. 2. Sign convention of the model: (a) Geometry, loads, coordinates and displacements;
(b) cut section of an innitesimal element dx. 9
4 E. Hamed, C. Lai / Structures 5 (2016) 112

Subtracting Eq. (8) from Eq. (9), the incremental strain at time t k1 Z
h=2
X
} Nr  
takes the following form: M b zdz Ers Ars zrs zrs 16
J k1 ;k1 ;k1 r1
h=2
t k1 0 J t k1 ; t 0 ; 0 J t k ; t 0 ; 0 
X k 
J t k1 ; t i1 ; i1 J t k1 ; t i ; i where b and h are the width and thickness of the column, respectively;
i i1
2 Ers ; Ars and zrs are the tangent modulus of elasticity, area, and distance
i1 
J t k ; t i1 ; i1 J t k ; t i ; i of the r-th layer of the steel reinforcement from the mid-thickness
10
 2  of the column (measured positive from right to left), and Nr is the
J t k1 ; t k ; k J t k1 ; t k1 ; k1 number of reinforcement layers in the section. Note that J, and
k1 k
2 } depend on the strain level at each material point, and they vary
sh t k1 sh t k : through the thickness and height of the column. By substituting the
kinematic relation (Eq. (1)) into Eqs. (15) and (16), the stress resul-
Denoting the average compliance modulus J k ;i ;i as: tants become
  
J t k ; t i1 ; i1 J t k ; t i ; i 1
J k ;i ;i 11 N u;x w;2x w;x w;x A11 w;xx B11 N 17
2 2

along with referring to }t k1 as the prescribed incremental strain 1
M u;x w;2x w;x w;x B11 w;xx D11 M 18
which introduces the creep and shrinkage effects into the system, with: 2

X
k   where A11, B11 and D11 are the extensional, extensionalexural, and
}t k1 0 J t k1 ; t 0 ; 0 J t k ; t 0 ; 0  i J k1 ;i ;i J k ;i ;i sh
i1 exural viscoelastic rigidities of the column, and N and M are incre-
12 mental force and bending moment that is caused by creep and
shrinkage, which take the following form:
the following incremental stressstrain relation can be obtained:
Z
h=2
X
Nr
b
t k1 k1 J k1 ;k1 ;k1 }t k1 13 A11 dz Ers Ars 19
J k1 ;k1 ;k1 r1
h=2
This formulation is general for any given compliance modulus (in-
cluding aging), general stress history and shrinkage strains. The deter- Z
h=2
XNr
bz
mination of the nonlinear compliance modulus, as well as all the other B11 dz Ers Ars zrs 20
creep and shrinkage parameters that are adopted in this study are J k1 ;k1 ;k1 r1
h=2
discussed in Section 2.4. The constitutive relations that relate the stress
resultants at the section level (axial force and bending moment) with Z
h=2
the strains are discussed in the subsequent. bz2 XNr  2
D11 dz Ers Ars zrs 21
The constitutive relation of the steel reinforcement under both ten- J k1 ;k1 ;k1 r1
h=2
sion and compression assuming an elastic-perfectly plastic behaviour is
given by:
Z
h=2 
8 1
< Es s for js j y N J t k1 ; t 0 ; 0 J t k ; t 0 ; 0 t 0 22
J k1 ;k1 ;k1
s Es y for y s 14 h=2
: 
Es y for s y X k  
J k1 ;i ;i J k ;i ;i i sh b dz
where s and s are the stress and strain of the steel reinforcement, and i1

Es and y are the elastic modulus and yielding strain respectively. It was
Z
h=2 
shown by Zong et al. [48], who investigated the buckling response of 1
steel bars that are embedded in concrete under compression, that M t 0 J t k1 ; t 0 ; 0 J t k ; t 0 ; 0
J k1 ;k1 ;k1
their stressstrain curve is linear up to the yield stress, whereas buck- h=2
X 
ling actually occurs at the inelastic range and is characterized by gradual k  
i J k1 ;i ;i J k ;i ;i sh bz dz: 23
stress degradation or softening. The latter effect depends on many pa- i1
rameters and in some cases the steel bar can still carry stresses at
the post-buckling stage beyond its yielding strength (similar to strain
hardening). To simplify the analysis, this effect is not accounted for 2.3. Incremental governing equations
here, and only an elastic-perfectly plastic response is modelled as
shown in Eq. (14). The incremental governing equations are derived by substituting the
stress resultants (Eqs. (17) and (18)) into the equilibrium equations
2.2. Relation between stress resultants and strains (Eqs. (2) and (3)). For convenience, the equations are presented as a
set of rst-order differential equations with terms of higher order prod-
The relations between the stress resultants at the section level (axial ucts (2) being neglected as follows:
force and bending moment) and the strains are determined using
Eq. (13) and assuming full bonding between the steel reinforcement w;x 24
and the concrete as follows:
   
B11 N N A11 M M
Z
h=2 ;x 25
} XNr   A11 D11 B211
N b dz Ers Ars zrs 15
J k1 ;k1 ;k1 r1
h=2 M;x VNw;x w;x N 26
 E. Hamed, C. Lai / Structures 5 (2016) 112 5

V;x q 27 levels can be taken from design codes, and following ACI-209R [1], it
takes the following form:
   

D11 N N B11 M M A11 D11 B211 w;x w;x " #
u;x 28 0 tt 0
A11 D11 B211 t; t u t 0 36
d tt 0
N;x n 29
where d and are wide-range parameters controlling the creep coef-
where V is the shear force. cient, and u t 0 is the ultimate creep coefcient that depends on the
age of loading by multiplying its value by 1:25t 0 0:118 . The compliance
2.4. Model parameters modulus, which is dened as J g= is stress-independent in this
case, as follows:
The instantaneous stressstrain relation of the concrete is presented
rst, from which the nonlinear compliance modulus is derived. The ma- 1 t; t 0
J t; t 0 : 37
terial model in compression is taken from CEB-FIP [14,15] as follows, as- E0 t 0
suming a linear brittle behaviour in tension:
8 At each time increment, the increase in strains is a result of creep and
>
> f 2 the combined effect of the geometric nonlinearity (P- effect), which
>
> E0 ins cm 2ins
>
> c makes it difcult to establish a cracking criterion for this combined
>
<  for clim ins 0
1 E0 c 2 ins 30 case. On the one hand, creep may lead to creep rupture failures in
>
> f cm c tension under sustained stress that is greater than about 70% the tensile
>
>
>
> E for 0 ins cr strength [47], and on the other hand, the increase in the bending
>
: 0 ins
0 for cr ins moments due to the geometric nonlinearity may lead to exural
cracking similar to the case under instantaneous loading which occur
where fcm is the mean compressive strength that is time dependent once the stress exceeds the tensile strength. For simplicity, the latter cri-
due to aging, E0 is the time-dependent modulus of elasticity, c is the terion is adopted here and cracking is assumed to occur once cr ins .
time-dependent strain at peak compressive stress, cr is the time- Once this condition is satised, the material point is cracked and the
dependent cracking strain (determined based on the mean tensile stresses are assumed to drop to zero instantaneously (Eq. 30). In these
strength as f ctm =E0 ), and clim is the strain that corresponds to a stress cases the compliance function is not dened, and the equivalent modu-
of 0.5fcm at the descending part of the instantaneous stressstrain com- lus (1= J) that appears in (Eqs. (15)(23)) is replaced with zero for the
pression diagram as shown in Fig. 1. The time dependent compressive particular points that are cracked through the height and thickness of
strength and elastic modulus are assumed to follow the expressions the column.
given in ACI-209R [1]: Nevertheless, for the behaviour in compression where nonlinearity
of the stressstrain relation takes place, a special treatment is required.
t0
f cm t f 28 31 For most practical cases and common levels of sustained stresses, it is as-
t0 cm
sumed that the level of strains under instantaneous loading at t = 0 is
smaller than c (see Fig. 1). Solving for the instantaneous strain (ins )
s in Eq. (30) for the condition c ins 0, we get the following relation:
f cm t
E0 t E0 28 32 
f cm 28 c
ins E0 Esc c E0 2Esc

2Esc f cm
where and are constants that depend on the type of cement used and E0 Esc c 2E20 Esc c 4E0 E2sc c E20 2 4E0 Esc 2
2 2 2
38
type of curing employed. 12 
The strain at the peak compressive stress is taken as [15]: 4E2sc f cm 4E2sc 2

f cm where Esc f cm =c . Using Eq. (38), the function g in Eq. (7) takes the
c 0:00170:001 33 following form for f cm b 0:
70
0 0
and the time dependent mean tensile strength is [14,15]: g ins 1 non
 t; t ; t
c
E0 Esc c E0 2Esc
 2
2Es f cm
f t 3 39
f ctm t 1:4 cm : 34 E0 Esc c 2E20 Esc c 4E0 E2sc c E20 2 4E0 Esc 2
2 2 2
10
12 
4E2sc f cm 4E2sc 2 1 non t; t 0 ; t 0

For the behaviour in tension 0ins cr that is assumed to be lin-

ear, the function g in Eq. (7), which describes the total time-dependent where non t; t 0 ; t 0 is the nonlinear creep coefcient in compression
strain, takes the following form assuming that the creep behaviour of that takes into account the material nonlinearity effects at high stress
uncracked concrete in tension is similar to that in compression at low levels. Several expressions exist in the literature and in design standards
stress levels [4,22]: ([7,18,20]) for estimating the nonlinear creep coefcient from the linear
one through a magnication function. The method proposed by
Fernndez Ruiz et al. [20] is adopted here as it is based on a continuous
1 t; t 0
g t; t 0 ; 35 function that can be differentiated for calculating the compliance modu-
E0 t 0
lus:

where t; t 0 is the creep coefcient that is dened as the ratio between  4 !

0 0 0
the creep strain and the instantaneous strain at time t for a sustained non t; t ; t t; t 1 2 : 40
f cm
stress that was applied at time t 0 . The creep coefcient for low stress
6 E. Hamed, C. Lai / Structures 5 (2016) 112
The nonlinear compliance modulus can then be obtained by
deriving Eq. (39) with respect to the stress . For brevity, this is not
shown here.
The shrinkage strains are typically not homogenous during drying
and tend to be different at the interfaces and the core of the column
section inducing internal stresses. However, because these stresses de-
velop gradually with time, they are relieved by creep soon after drying
and a uniform strain prole through the thickness of the column is
formed [22]. Because the focus of this study is the creep behaviour
under high stresses levels, the inuence of the internal shrinkage-
induced stresses is not considered as they are negligible compared to
the loading-induced stresses. Therefore, a uniform shrinkage strain dis-
tribution is assumed along the height of the column as well as through
its width and thickness. Following ACI-209R [1], the shrinkage strain is
given by:
t u
sh t 41
l t sh
where and l are constants and ush is the nal shrinkage strain.
2.5. Solution procedure
(Eqs. (24)(29)) are nonlinear differential equations because the
viscoelastic rigidities depend on the unknown deformations via
(Eqs. (19)(21)). This nonlinearity is solved by an iterative procedure.
The rigidities and the effective forces and moments that account for
creep and shrinkage (Eqs. (19)(23)) actually change along the height
of the column (functions of x) due to cracking and material nonlinearity,
which call for the use of a numerical method for the solution of the dif-
ferential equations at each time step or iteration. The multiple shooting
method [45] is used here for the solution of the equations, where the
domain x0; H is divided into a number of regions and the equations
are integrated via the RungeKutta method. Nevertheless, in order to
obtain the forces and rigidities in (Eqs. (19)(23)), an integration over
the thickness of the column is required. Due to the nonlinear variation
of the compliance modulus and stresses through the thickness of the
column, these integrals are obtained numerically by dividing the section
of the column into a number of layers, resulting in an overall model that
is similar to Fiber beam models [44].
The iterative procedure used for the determination of the rigidities
A11, B11 and D11 follows these steps:
1. Step 1. First estimation of the rigidities. For the solution of the rst it-
eration of the rst step of instantaneous loading, the column is as-
sumed uncracked and the compressive stresses are assumed to be
within the linear range of the stressstrain curve. The rigidities are
estimated as the elastic rigidities at this stage. For the following
time/load steps, the solution from the previous step is used for esti-
mating the rigidities.
2. Step 2. Structural analysis. Based on the rigidities that were calculated
in the initial guess or in the previous iteration (step 3.3), the
governing nonlinear differential equations become linear ones
because the rigidities are known. The equations are then solved
numerically.
3. Step 3. Sections analysis. Following the structural analysis conducted
in step 2, the distribution of the deformations become known, and
the equivalent rigidities of each section through the height of the col-
umn are determined as follows:
3.1 The incremental strain distribution across the section t k1 is
determined using Eq. (1). The incremental instantaneous strain
is then obtained by subtracting }t k1 , which includes the ef-
fects of creep and shrinkage, from t k1 : The total instanta-
neous strain ins t k1 is obtained by adding the incremental
instantaneous strain ins to the total accumulated one from
time tk, i.e., ins t k .
3.2 From the total instantaneous strain distribution, the stress at
each material point through the thickness and height of the col-
umn can be calculated from Eq. (30) using the updated age-
dependent material properties.
3.3 From the stresses, the nonlinear compliance modulus at each ma-
terial point is determined, and the viscoelastic rigidities and the
incremental effective forces due to creep and shrinkage are deter-
mined from Eqs. (19)(23).
4. Step 4. Convergence criteria. The iterative procedure stops once the
difference between the magnitudes of the viscoelastic rigidities at
each point through the height of the column calculated in two suc-
cessive iterations becomes fairly small.
The analysis is conducted through a time-stepping procedure until
the strains of the concrete reach a certain limit. The time for which
this happens is referred to as critical time. The limit state can actually
be due to high stressing of the column without stability issues (material
failure), or due to a rapid and unlimited increase of the deformations
and strains due to creep buckling (instability). The distinction between
the two failure mechanisms can be obtained by examining the response
of the column with time and its rate of change. Due to the potential
combined failure modes, the terminology for failure in the subsequent
is referred to as time-dependent load carrying capacity, because
creep buckling can be viewed only as failures induced by the geometric
nonlinearity.
While crushing failure of the concrete under instantaneous loading
occurs once the strain reaches clim at the descending part of the
stressstrain curve (Fig. 1), crushing failure is assumed to occur here
once the stress exceeds 0.8fcm. This is in order to account for the creep
rupture phenomenon of concrete under high levels of sustained stresses
[13]. In fact, in the problem at hand, the stresses are actually varying
with time due to both creep and relaxation and the geometric nonline-
arity. The latter can be considered as instantaneous stresses that do not
lead to creep rupture. Nevertheless, as the nal response is a combina-
tion of the two coupled effects and because tertiary creep is not actually
modelled here, it is conservatively assumed that once the stresses reach
0.8fcm, a failure is about to happen due to creep rupture, and the analysis
stops. The time step is kept relatively small throughout the analysis be-
cause the rate of creep is relatively high at the early stages after loading
and at unknown times for which buckling or material softening with
time may occur.
3. Numerical study
A numerical example is rst presented here, which is then followed
by a parametric study and a comparison of the numerical results with
test results from the literature.
3.1. Numerical example
A concrete column that is subjected to an eccentric sustained com-
pression is investigated. The column has a square cross section with a
thickness of 400 mm and is simply supported at both edges with an
overall height of 6.0 m, as shown in Fig. 3. The column is reinforced
with eight 24 mm diameter steel bars with a 30 mm concrete cover.
The yielding strength and elastic modulus of the steel are 500 MPa
and 200 GPa respectively. The column is assumed to be loaded at the
age of 28 days after casting by a sustained load of P = 2000 kN with
an eccentricity of e h=5 80 mm from the centerline. This load
level corresponds to approximately 65% of the instantaneous failure
load of the column, which was estimated using the model. The compres-
sive strength of the concrete at the age of 28 days is taken as fcm =
32 MPa, and the corresponding elastic modulus E0 is taken as
30.1 GPa. The tensile strength that was obtained through Eq. (34) equals
3.04 MPa. The time dependent parameters used here are: u 2:53,
d = 10, = 0.6, = 4, = 0.85, ush = 0.0007, = 1.1 and l = 25.
 E. Hamed, C. Lai / Structures 5 (2016) 112
Fig. 3. Geometry, material properties, and loading of investigated column.
The time-dependent variation of the normalised deection (with re-
spect to the thickness) and bending moment at mid-height are shown
in Fig. 4, where t refers to the time since loading at the age of 28 days.
Because the stresses induced by shrinkage prior to loading depends on
Fig. 4. Creep response: (a) Normalised deection with time; (b) bending moment with time.
(a)
Fig. 5. Stress variation with time: (a) Compressive stress in concrete with time; (b) stresses in steel with time (legend: stress at the right side; - . -. - stress at the left side).
7
the supporting conditions before loading and thus on the construction
technique, these stresses are ignored (that is, shrinkage is taken to com-
mence at t = 0); also because the level of loading investigated here is
relatively very high compared to the shrinkage induced stresses prior
to loading. The results reveal that cracks develop instantaneously at
the mid-height of the column with the out-of-plane normalised defor-
mations and bending moments increasing overtime (Fig. 4). Yielding
of steel in compression occurred at a time of 76.5 days. Crushing of
the concrete followed shortly after at 91.5 days, due to rapid creep rup-
ture failure as the compressive stresses reaches 0.8 the compressive
strength. The model shows that the deformations and bending mo-
ments increase at a greater rate after yielding of the steel due to a great-
er transfer of compressive stresses to the concrete that is accompanied
by rapid material softening and crushing.
The variation with time of the peak stresses of the concrete and the
steel reinforcement at mid-height are shown in Fig. 5. It can be seen that
the peak compression stress in the concrete continuously increase in
magnitude, along with a higher rate after the compressive steel has
yielded. The results also show that the stresses in the steel reinforce-
ments on both sides of the column tend to increase with time. The in-
crease is induced by the restraint of the creep and shrinkage
deformations of the concrete, and by the additional bending moment
due to the geometric nonlinearity.
The distribution of the strains and stresses through the thickness of
the column at mid-height and at the top of the column is shown in
Figs. 6 and 7 respectively. The gures address the instantaneous
(at t = 0) and the long-term stresses and strains at the time of failure
(t = 91.5 days). Fig. 6a shows an increase of the strains with time at
mid-height of the column in the tension and compression sides, with
the neutral axis shifting slightly towards the compressed side of the
(b)
8 E. Hamed, C. Lai / Structures 5 (2016) 112

(a) (b)

Fig. 6. Concrete strains and stresses at mid-height of column: (a) Normal total strain distribution; (b) normal stress distribution.

(a) (b)

Fig. 7. Concrete strains and stresses at the edge of the column: (a) Normal total strain distribution; (b) normal stress distribution.

column. On the other hand, Fig. 7a shows that at the top of the column 3.2. Parametric study
where there are no second order effects of the geometric nonlinearity
(i.e., the bending moment is constant with time), the neutral axis is A parametric study is conducted to investigate the inuence of some
shifting to the tensioned side of the column due to the combined effects of the parameters that govern the nonlinear time-dependent response.
of creep of the concrete and the relaxation caused by the reinforcement. Four parameters are investigated, which include the magnitude and ec-
Fig. 6b indicates that the depth of the cracking zone increases with time centricity of the sustained load, the steel reinforcement ratio, and the
due to the effects of creep. However, Fig. 7b shows that there is no crack- slenderness of the column. The column investigated in Section 3.1 is
ing occurring at the top of the column. Both gures afrm that the used as a reference one with P = 2000 kN, e = h/5 = 80 mm and
stresses increase with time due to creep effects in the nonlinear region
of the stressstrain curve of concrete in compression.
As mentioned earlier, the failure over time of the column can be a re-
sult of the geometric nonlinearity only, or a combination of both geo-
metric and material nonlinearities. In the case investigated here, the
failure can be seen as a creep rupture failure of the column that is
about to happen, which is induced and accelerated by the geometric
nonlinearity. To shed more light into this, Fig. 8 shows the time depen-
dent response obtained in Fig. 4 that is compared to the response ob-
tained using two different analyses. The rst analysis accounts for
cracking of the concrete and the geometric nonlinearity, but without
considering the material nonlinearity in compression as was imple-
mented by many researches in the literature ([23,30,31,41]). The sec-
ond analysis considers cracking and material nonlinearity in
compression, but does not account for the geometric nonlinearity. It
can be seen from Fig. 8 that in the case examined here, both approaches
predict a stable behaviour with time, while the one developed in this
paper predicts an early failure. This reconrms that the failure is basical-
ly a combination of both the geometric and material nonlinearities, and
the interaction between the two. Fig. 8. Creep response obtained with different approaches.
 E. Hamed, C. Lai / Structures 5 (2016) 112 9

Fig. 9. Inuence of load level: a) Normalised deection vs time; b) peak stress in concrete vs time; c) peak stress in steel vs time.

= 2.3% (reinforcement ratio). Thus, except for the slenderness, when
one parameter is changed, the other two are kept constant. For consis-
tency and comparison, the analysis is conducted up to 1000 days since
rst loading in all cases. The inuence of the magnitude of the sustained
load is investigated in Fig. 9. The eccentricity and reinforcement ratio
are h/5 and 2.3% respectively for all load levels.
While under the reference load level of 2000 kN the wall failed after
91.5 days, as expected, a decrease of the imposed load causes later or no
time-dependent failure of the column. At a load of 1750 kN, the column
cracks instantaneously and the compressive steel yields at 540 days. Yet,
with no failure being detected within 1000 days since rst loading. The
analysis should run beyond 1000 days to know whether this case is sta-
ble or unstable one, which is not conducted here, but the results already
show that small changes in the load level can lead to signicant changes
in the nonlinear time-dependent response. At a load of 1500 kN, the col-
umn cracks after 4 days but the response becomes stable at around
900 days with only minor increase in the deformations beyond this
point, which indicates a stable response.
The effect of the load eccentricity on the time-dependent response is
investigated in Fig. 10, in which P = 2000 kN and = 2.3%. Also here,
the sensitivity of the behaviour upon changes in the load eccentricity is
revealed, where small variations of the eccentricity may trigger earlier
or later time-dependent failures. At an eccentricity of 70 mm, the steel
under compression yielded at 180 days with concrete crushing (creep
rupture) at 450 days. At an eccentricity of 80 mm (the reference case),
failure is predicted at 91.5 days, and at an eccentricity of 90 mm, the col-
umn fails at 8 days without yielding of the steel. This reveals that the
change of the critical time with the load eccentricity is signicantly non-
linear, and that it is important to consider different load scenarios in the
design of slender RC columns, as inaccuracies in estimating the actual
load eccentricity (which is very common) may have a critical inuence
on the predicted behaviour.
As changing the slenderness ratio can signicantly change the failure
load and failure mode, four slenderness ratios are investigated by
changing the height of the column and maintaining the same cross-
section, load eccentricity, and reinforcement ratio as the reference

(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 10. Inuence of load eccentricity: a) Normalised deection vs time; b) peak stress in concrete vs time; c) peak stress in steel vs time.

(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 11. Inuence of slenderness ratio: a) Normalised deection vs time; b) peak stress in concrete vs time; c) peak stress in steel vs time.
10 E. Hamed, C. Lai / Structures 5 (2016) 112
(a) (b)
Fig. 12. Inuence of reinforcement ratio: a) Normalised deection vs time; b) peak stress in concrete vs time; c) peak stress in steel vs time.
case. The slenderness ratio is dened as the height over the radius of
gyration of the column section. The four investigated slenderness ratios
are 22, 52, 78, and 104, where 52 refers to the reference panel investi-
gated in Section 3.1. For each case the column is loaded by 65% of its es-
timated instantaneous failure load. Fig. 11 shows the time response for
all examined cases. It reveals a rapid failure with time for a slenderness
ratio that is greater or equal to 52, which is controlled by the combined
geometric and material nonlinearities. The critical time decreases with
Fig. 13. Critical time vs reinforcement ratio.
Fig. 14. Comparison to test results: (a) Geometry and loading of tested columns; (b) theoretical vs experimental load-deection curve.
(c)
the increase of the slenderness ratio. For slenderness ratio of 22 no fail-
ure is predicted and the response seems to be stable beyond 300 days
since loading.
The effect of the reinforcement ratio is shown in Fig. 12 with P =
2000 kN and an eccentricity of h/5 for all cases. It can be seen that the
critical time of the RC column increases with the increase of the rein-
forcement ratio. For a reinforcement ratio of 1.6%, the concrete experi-
enced crushing at 7.5 days with no yielding of the compressed steel. A
similar scenario occurred for the column with a reinforcement ratio of
1.9% where the column crushes at 26 days. Increasing the reinforcement
ratio from 2.3% for the reference column to 3.1% increases the time to
failure from 91.5 days to about 890 days. Fig. 13 shows an interesting
exponential increase of the critical time with the increase of the rein-
forcement ratio. Thus, at some level of reinforcement ratio, the critical
time for failure can increase beyond the design life of the column or
may not exist, which indicates a stable response. These results reveal a
potential way of controlling the time-dependent capacity without the
need to change the geometry of the column, which can be effective for
slender RC columns.
3.3. Comparison to test results
Some test results regarding the typical creep behaviour of RC col-
umns under low stress levels and without time-dependent failures
have been reported in the literature, but only one study could be
found with a failure in time (creep buckling in this case), which is that
of Espion [19]. The geometry of the three similar columns reported in
Espion [19], which are xed at the bottom and free at the top, appears
in Fig. 14a. The thickness and width of the columns are 150 mm and
 E. Hamed, C. Lai / Structures 5 (2016) 112
Fig. 15. Experimental and theoretical deections vs time.
200 mm respectively with four 12 mm diameter steel reinforcements
and a concrete cover of 14 mm. The compressive strength of concrete
is 38.3 MPa and the yield strength of steel is 465 MPa. The columns
were loaded at 28 days after casting. Three set of tests (one column
each) were reported, and in all sets the load eccentricity is 15 mm
from the centre of the cross section.
In the rst test, the column is loaded instantaneously to failure. The
experimental and theoretical load-deection curves for this case are
shown in Fig. 14b, and they exhibit a good correlation. The predicted
compressive stresses in the concrete at peak load are only 23 MPa,
which indicates that the main reason for softening of the behaviour is
due to geometric nonlinearity and buckling. Cracking appears at a load
level of about 460 kN. In the second and third sets of tests, creep of
the column under different loads is conducted. In the second test, a
load of 250 kN is applied and sustained for 206 days, while in the
third test, a load of 280 kN is applied and sustained until failure was ob-
served at 197 days. The predicted initial maximum compressive stresses
in the concrete at these two levels upon loading are 11.8 MPa and
13.2 MPa, respectively, which are relatively low. Due to the lack of
data regarding the creep characteristics of the concrete used in the
tests, the creep coefcient was calibrated as 3.0 in order to provide a
good correlation between the theoretical and experimental results for
the second set of testing that does not exhibit a creep buckling failure,
as shown in Fig. 15. The modulus of elasticity was calculated from the
reported compressive strength of the concrete using AS3600 [3], and
all other parameters that control the creep and aging behaviour follow
the same ones reported in the numerical study (Section 3.1).
Using the calibrated creep coefcient of 3.0 to predict the behaviour
of the column in the third set of testing, it can be seen from Fig. 15 that
the model is capable of predicting a creep buckling response of the col-
umn. Although the results show that buckling occurs earlier than that in
the test, this could be attributed to mismatch between some of the creep
parameters used in the model and the actual ones, which were not re-
ported in Espion [19]. In addition, the load level and load eccentricity
are taken as constant with time in the model, but in actual testing,
they can vary and inuence the response. As previously noted in
Section 3.2, small changes in the eccentricity or load level can dramati-
cally change the critical time for failure, which is a sensitivity character-
istic of any typical creep buckling behaviour [27,29]. Nevertheless, the
comparison provides a level of validation to the proposed model al-
though the level of applied sustained stresses in this experimental
work is not very high.
4. Conclusions
The combined geometrically and materially nonlinear creep effects
in reinforced concrete columns have been investigated, through the
11
development of a theoretical model that accounts for nonlinear creep,
cracking, shrinkage and aging of the concrete using the viscoelastic
modied principle of superposition. The model also considers the geo-
metric nonlinearity through large displacements kinematics. A time-
stepping analysis is conducted, which is able to describe the variation
of the internal stresses and deformations with time.
The numerical study has shown that creep in RC columns leads to
continuous magnications and modications of the internal forces and
deformations with time. This can cause premature failure of the column
under sustained loads that are much smaller than the instantaneous
load carrying capacity. Yet, the evaluation of these effects requires the
use of detailed geometrically and materially nonlinear models and anal-
yses. It has also been shown that the nonlinear time-dependent re-
sponse is very sensitive to uncertainties in the loading parameters,
where small changes in the load levels and eccentricities can lead to a
much different failure times. In addition, the results reveal that the
time-dependent failures can be potentially prevented by providing suf-
cient reinforcement.
Time-dependent shifting of the neutral axis towards the compres-
sion side has also been observed through the numerical study, which
is associated by an increase of the stresses in the concrete and steel re-
inforcement due to creep. As a result of the time-dependent increase of
stresses, concrete creep rupture or steel yielding may occur before buck-
ling of the RC column. Creep may also lead to cracking with time that
can dramatically inuence the load carrying capacity of the RC column,
and should be considered in their analysis even though the column may
not be cracked under instantaneous loading.
Based on the numerical results presented and discussed here, it can
be seen that the nonlinear creep response of RC columns exhibits vari-
ous physical phenomena that need to be fully understood and claried.
The analytical model developed in this paper explains some of these as-
pects, and provides a numerical tool and a theoretical basis for the non-
linear time-dependent analysis and long-term performance assessment
of RC columns.
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