ABSTRACT
The shrinkage influence on RC members subject to bending is more complicated than that on members subject to axial tension. Due to the higher stiffness of reinforcement than concrete, the presence of typically greater amount of reinforcement at the tension side of beams would lead to more significant restraining effect on the shrinkage movement compared to the compression side, thus resulting in nonuniform restrained shrinkage strain over the beam depth (Bischoff and Johnson, 2007; Scanlon and Bischoff, 2008). Tensile stresses would be induced by restrained shrinkage, and this might significantly affect the cracking resistance and short-term deformation of the flexural member. Depending on the curing condition and the time of loading, different amount of restrained shrinkage may exist at the time of first loading (Gribniak and Kaklauskas, 2014). Therefore, even at initial loading, the cracking resistance and instantaneous deformation may be affected by shrinkage effects and this in turn affects the load response and tension stiffening behaviour.
