Long-Term Creep and Shrinkage in High-Strength Lightweight Concrete

The advantages of high performance concrete (HPC) have long been recognized, particularly bridge structures. Structural lightweight concrete (SLC), usually defined as a concrete with an air dried density at 28 days, has three key advantages:reduction in structure dead load; reduction in member size; and development of a precast technology as a result of self weight reduction that facilitates the transport and lifting of structural members. High performance lightweight concrete (HPLC) can be conceptualized a concrete possessing the characteristics of both HPC and SLC. Current design standards do not specifically consider HPLC. High strength and high performance lightweight concrete is a relatively new material and its long term performance, especially creep, is not well known. This might be one barrier to the use of HPLC. The objective of this research was to investigate the time dependence behavior of high performance, lightweight concrete for its potential use in precast, prestressed bridge girders.