An unified approach for the modeling of drying shrinkage and basic

creep of concrete
F. Benboudjema
Laboratoire de Mcanique et Technologie cole Normale Suprieure de Cachan, Cachan, France
F. Meftah
Laboratoire de Mcanique Universit de Marne La Valle, Champs sur Marne, France
J.M. Torrenti
Institut de Radioprotection et de Sret Nuclaire, Fontenay-Aux-Roses CEDEX, France
ABSTRACT: In this paper, a numerical modeling of the delayed behavior of concrete is presented. The model
takes into account drying, shrinkage, creep and cracking phenomena. The coupling between all these phe-
nomena is performed by using the theory of non-saturated porous media and the effective stress concept. The
analysis of the long-term behavior is performed on a concrete specimen subjected to drying. Numerical simu-
lations are compared to experimental data from the literature, in order to check the abilities of the model to
describe the hydro mechanical behavior of concrete.
1 INTRODUCTION
Non-homogeneous drying induces the occurrence
of cracking which interacts with concomitant creep
and shrinkage mechanisms. This means that struc-
tural effect affects, simultaneously, measurements of
shrinkage and creep deformations in any experiment
(Granger 1996). Unfortunately, no experimental
procedure allows for separating, easily, intrinsic be-
haviors from structural effects when shrinkage and
creep are concerned. Identifying constitutive laws
from experimental measurements cannot be per-
formed in a straightforward way. It needs the use of
a robust cracking model in order to quantify accu-
rately, by means of computations, the structural part.
The intrinsic behavior of the drying concrete can
therefore be deduced in a sort of inverse analysis on
focusing on the conventional components: drying
shrinkage and basic creep.
A hydro-mechanical model is developed, includ-
ing the description of drying, shrinkage, creep and
cracking phenomena for concrete as a non-saturated
porous medium. The modeling of drying shrinkage
is based on a unified approach of creep and shrink-
age. Basic creep model is based on chemo-physical
mechanisms, which occur at different scales of the
cement paste. Indeed, basic creep is explicitly re-
lated to the micro-diffusion of the adsorbed water
between interhydrates and intrahydrates and the cap-
illary pores, and the sliding of the C-S-H gel at the
nano-porosity level. Drying shrinkage is, therefore,
assumed to result from the elastic and creep re-
sponse of the solid skeleton, submitted to both capil-
lary and disjoining pressures. Furthermore, the
cracking behavior of concrete is described by an
orthotropic elastoplastic damage model. The cou-
pling between all these phenomena is performed by
using effective stresses which account for both ex-
ternal applied stresses and pore pressures.
This model has been incorporated in a finite ele-
ment code. The analysis of the long-term behavior is
performed on concrete specimens subjected to dry-
ing.
2 HYDRO-MECHANICAL MODELING
In this section, we present the modeling framework
for concrete in partially saturated conditions. The
formulation of the model is based on the mechanics
of porous media, using the effective stress concept.
The vector of the total strain is split into 3 com-
ponents :
e p bc
= + + (1)
where
e
= elastic strain;
p
= plastic strain; and
bc
=
basic creep strain.
The drying shrinkage strain does not appear in the
decomposition (equation 1). The modeling of drying
shrinkage is based on an unified approach of creep
and shrinkage. Indeed, we suggest that that drying
shrinkage is driven by pore pressures. Therefore, this
strain results implicitly from the elastic and creep
straining of the material due to capillarity and dis-
joining pressure.
The modeling of each studied phenomena (dry-
ing, cracking, creep and shrinkage) is successively
presented.
2.1 Drying model
The drying of concrete is modeled here by a diffu-
sion-type equation, i.e. second Ficks law:
( ) (
C D C =

)
C (2)
in which C = water content; and D = the diffusivity,
which varies in a strongly non-linear manner as a
function of the water content. The dot represents the
derivative with respect to time.
The diffusivity is calculated with the relationship
derived by Xi & al. (1994):
( )
( )
( )
1
10
0
1 1 2
b h
D h D a

= +

(
(

(3)
where D
0
, a and b are material parameters, depend-
ing upon the concrete formulation.
Eq. (2) and (3) take into account the migration of
both of liquid and vapor phases in concrete.
The relative humidity is relied on the water con-
tent by the desorption isotherm curve. The BSB
model (Xi & al. 1994), called also the three-
parameter BET model, is used here to calculate the
desorption isotherm curve:
( ) ( ) 1 1 1
m
AkV h
C
kh A kh
=
+ (

(4)
where A, k and V
m
are material parameters of the
BSB model.
The drying boundary conditions are of a convec-
tive type. The exchanged flux of moisture per unit
surface between the exposed faces of concrete and
the ambient air J is as follow (Torrenti & al. 1999):
( ) ( ) (
0
2
cf eq s s eq
C C C C C
(
=

J n
)
(5)
where
cf
= a constant parameter equal to 5.10
-10

m
4
/s/l; C
0
= initial water content; C
s
= the water con-
tent on the drying face; C
eq
= the water content cor-
responding to the environmental relative humidity;
and is the normal vector to the drying surface
(oriented toward the exterior).
n
It is considered here that drying-induced cracking
does not influence significantly the drying process.
As a matter of fact, experimental results show that a
non-loaded specimen and a loaded specimen in
compression dry in the same manner (Lassabatre &
al. 1997), even if the compressive loading prevents
from pronounced microcracking. Moreover, drying
induced cracking is not important. Their opening is
less than 50 m (Sicard & al. 1992, Bisschop & van
Mier 2002). Therefore, it can be expected that dry-
ing-induced cracking has little influence on the dry-
ing process.
2.2 Cracking model
The behavior of cracked concrete is modeled by a
damage model coupled with softening plasticity, de-
veloped by the authors (Benboudjema & al. 2001).
The plastic strain describes irreversible deformation
observed experimentally at unloading. The accom-
panying stiffness degradation due to microcracks is
given by the second order damage tensor D.
The cracked material is considered to be a mate-
rial, the effective surface (resistant) of which is re-
duced due to the cracking process (see figure 1). The
vector of the nominal stress is related to the vec-
tor of the effective stress , which acts on the un-
cracked material only, by the following relationship:

~
( ) = I D (6)
where I is the second order unit tensor.
Effectives stresses are related to the elastic strain
by :
e
=
0
E (7)
where E
0
is the second order elastic stiffness tensor.
2.2.1 Damage evolution
In order to describe properly difference of damage
process in compression and in tension, the damage
variable is separated into a compressive and a tensile
one. The damage process is assumed here to be iso-
tropic in compression and orthotropic in tension,
where orthotropy is induced by cracking (see Fig. 1).
Hence, a scalar damage variable D
c
is used in com-
pression, while a tensorial one D
t
is considered in
tension. The damage tensor D is then given by
(Benboudjema 2002):
( )( ) 1
c
D I D I D =
t
(8)


Undamaged
Material
Damaged
Material
Cracks

Un-
damaged
Part
Damaged
Part

~
( ) D S S = 1
~
S S =
~
Apparent
stresses
Effective
stresses
Apparent area Effective area Damage variable


Figure 1. Definition of the damage variable.

Damage evolution is related to the cumulative
plastic strains. As a matter of fact, experimental evi-
dences show that this choice is relevant for concrete
(Ju 1989). The evolution function is of exponential
type (Lee & Fenves 1998, Nechnech 2000):
( ) ( )
( ) (
1 exp
1 exp
c c c c
ii ii ii
t t t t
D c
D c


=

)
(9)
where
c
and
t
ii
are the compressive and i
th
princi-
pal tensile cumulative plastic strains, respectively,
given by Equation 15.
2.2.2 Plastic evolution
The coupling between damage and plasticity is
based on the effective stress concept and on the hy-
pothesis that the undamaged material behavior is
elasto-plastic (Ju 1989). In order to reproduce a suit-
able behavior both in compression and in tension, a
Drucker-Prager criterion in compression and three
Rankine criteria in tension are used (see Figure 2).
The use of 3 independent criteria allows for retriev-
ing an orthotropic behavior.
This choice has been previously made by many au-
thors (Feenstra 1993, Heinfling 1998, Nechnech
2000) in the isotropic case.


-1,5
-1
-0,5
0
-1,5 -1 -0,5 0
2
c
f

1
c
f

Kupfer et Gerstle (1973)

Simulation
Van Mier (1984)
Torrenti (1987)
-1,5
-1
-0,5
0
-1,5 -1 -0,5 0
2
c
f

1
c
f

Kupfer et Gerstle (1973)

Simulation
Van Mier (1984)
Torrenti (1987)
Kupfer et Gerstle (1973)
Simulation
Van Mier (1984)
Torrenti (1987)


Figure 2. Drucker-Prager and Rankine criteria in the principal
stress space (2D).

The Drucker-Prager criterion is written as:
( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
2 1
, 3
c c f c
F J I = +
c

)
i ii
t
(10)
where J
2
( ) = the second invariant of the effective
stress ; I

1
( ) = the first invariant;
c
= the nominal
strength in compression;
f
and are two material
parameters.
The Rankine criteria are written as:
( ) (
,
i
t t ii t
F = (11)
where
t
= the nominal strength in tension.
The nominal strengths are defined by:
( ) ( ) (
0
1 exp exp 2
ii ii ii
x x x x x x x x
a b f a = +
(

)
b (12)
where a
x
and b
x
are material parameters identified
from an uniaxial test. The subscript x refers to ten-
sion (t) or compression (c).
The non-associative plastic flow theory is
adopted in compression:
( ) ( ) ( )
2 1
3
c g
G J I
c c
= + (13)
where
g
is a material parameter which controls di-
latancy of concrete.
The plastic strain rate is then obtained by Koiter as-
sumption:
i
p ii t
t c
i
F

c
G
= +

(14)
where
x
i
is the plastic multiplier associated to the
plastic potential functions in compression and in ten-
sion.
The cumulated plastic strains, used as hardening /
softening parameters, are defined by (in the system
of the principal effective stresses for the tensile
component):
( )
1/ 2
2
1 2
c g
ii ii
t t
c

= +

(15)
Strain softening induces inherent mesh dependency
and produces failure without energy dissipation
(Baant 1976). In order to avoid these features, the
fracture energy approach, proposed by Hillerborg &
al. (1976) is used. The fracture energy density g
fx
is
related to fracture energy G
fx
by a characteristic
length l
e
:
fx
fx
e
G
g
l
= (16)
The characteristic length l
e
is related to the size of
the finite element (Feenstra 1993):
e e
l k = A (17)
where k
e
is a coefficient which depends upon the
type of finite element.
2.3 Basic creep model
Basic creep of concrete is still a controversial issue.
Many explanations for the mechanisms have been
proposed in the literature to retrieve the collected
experimental evidences (Jennings & Xi 1992). How-
ever, no theory has been universally accepted yet, al-
though it is well admitted that water plays a funda-
mental role.
In this paper, a multiaxial model developed by the
authors is used (Benboudjema & al. 2001), where
the role of water is integrated in a original manner.
In this model, the basic creep is considered to be the
result of two major mechanisms. They are driven by
the spherical and deviatoric components of the stress
tensor, respectively. Several experimental findings
prove that the splitting of the creep strain process to
a spherical part and a deviatoric part is relevant
(Benboudjema & al. 2001). Indeed, they showed that
the spherical creep strains and the deviatoric creep
strains are proportional to the spherical part and the
deviatoric part of the stress tensor, respectively.
Each part of the creep strain process is therefore
associated with a different chemo-physical mecha-
nism. The decomposition of the basic creep strains
vector
bc
reads therefore:

bc dev sph
bc bc
1 = + (18)
where
bc
sph
and
bc
dev
are the spherical and the de-
viatoric creep strains respectively. The vector 1
reads :
| | 1 1 1 0 0 0
T
1 = (19)
It should be emphasized that such a decomposi-
tion of the creep strain (in a spherical and a devia-
toric part) has been previously proposed (Baant
1988).
2.3.1 Spherical creep
The spherical part is assumed to occur in the mi-
cro-porosity (0,01 50 m range). It is associated to
the migration of adsorbed water, located at the inter-
face between hydrates and the hydrates intrinsic po-
rosity, towards the capillary pores (Fig. 3).


Water migration
at different scales
Hydrates
Capillary
pore
Intrahydrate
porosity
Anhydrate
cement
c
d
Interhydrate
porosity
sph

sph

sph

sph

Figure 3. Proposed mechanism for the spherical creep. (Ben-
boudjema & al. 2001)

This mechanism has been previously suggested
by many authors (see Benboudjema 2002). As a
matter of fact, several experimental findings con-
firms this theory.
By assuming that the behavior of the hydrated
and the unhydrated cement particles are elastic and
that the migration of water follows the Poiseuille
equation, the adopted mechanisms lead to the fol-
lowing system of equations :
( )
1
2
1
sph sph sph sph sph
r r i sph
r
sph sph sph sph sph sph
i r r i sph
i
sph sph sph
r r
h k
k k k
h k

( =

(
= +

(20)
with :
sph
i
sph
r
sph
+ = with
2
x x
x
+
=
+
(21)
where
r
sph
and
i
sph
are the reversible and the irre-
versible spherical creep strain respectively ;
r
sph
and

i
sph
are the apparent viscosities of the water at two
different scales of the material (macroscopic and mi-
croscopic level, respectively). These apparent quan-
tities depend upon the water viscosity and the con-
nected porosity geometry. Further, k
r
sph
and k
i
sph
are
the apparent stiffness associated to the precedent
viscosities and related to the stiffness of the porous
material and the skeleton.
sph
is the spherical ef-
fective stress.
2.3.2 Deviatoric creep
The deviatoric part is supposed to be caused by
the sliding of the C-S-H layers (see Benboudjema
2002). This phenomenon occurs in the nanoporosity
(dimension of about 1 nm).
The deviatoric creep mechanism is presented in
Figure 4.
As the case of the spherical basic creep, the de-
viatoric creep strain vector
bc
dev
is split in a reversi-
ble part
r
dev
and an irreversible part
i
dev
:
dev dev dev
bc r i
= + (22)
The reversible part is associated to the interfoliar ad-
sorbed water (great adsorption energy). The irre-
versible part is due to the rupture of the hydrogen
bridge in the interlamellar adsorbed water.
The physical mechanism of the deviatoric creep
leads to constitutive relations:
( )
dev dev dev dev dev
r r r r ii
dev dev dev
i i
k rev h
h

+ =

(23)


Hydroxyl
water
Water
molecule
Hydrogen
water
I
n
t
e
r
f
o
l
i
a
r
a
d
s
o
r
b
e
d

w
a
t
e
r
I
n
t
e
r

l
a
m
e
l
l
a
r
a
d
s
o
r
b
e
d

w
a
t
e
r
dev
ii

dev
ii

C-S-H sheets
sliding at the nano-
porosity scale


Figure 4. Mechanisms of the deviatoric creep in the C-S-H
nanopores. (Benboudjema & al. 2001)

The Eq. (20) and (23) can be solved analytically
for constant stresses and a constant relative humid-
ity. The basic creep strains vector
bc
can be ex-
pressed as :
( ) ( )
bc bc
t h t = J (24)
where J
bc
is the basic creep compliance tensor (sec-
ond order), depending upon the materials parameters
(Benboudjema 2002).
2.4 Drying shrinkage model
Concrete is a material which is strongly hydro-
philic and has an important specific surface. Indeed,
it exhibits a behavior very sensitive to the hygromet-
ric conditions.
The modeling of drying shrinkage is based on the
mechanisms of disjoining pressure and capillary
pressure, which seem to be predominant in the range
50 100 % of relative humidity (Soroka 1979). We
suppose that drying shrinkage results from the elas-
tic and the delayed response of the solid skeleton
under capillary pressure and disjoining pressure.
This idea, that creep and shrinkage are similar, has
been previously reported by many authors (see Ben-
boudjema 2002). But, to the authors knowledge,
only Baant & Wu (1974) traduced this idea in the
form of constitutive relations.
The capillary pore pressure p
c
is derived from the
Kelvin law, which states that the gaseous phase (air
and water vapor, pressure p
g
) and the liquid phase
(water, pressure p
l
) are in equilibrium. This leads to
the equation:
( ) ln
l
l g c
v
RT
p p p h
M
= = (25)
where R is the gas constant,;T is the temperature;
l

is the water density; and M
v
is the water molar mass.
The expression of the disjoining pressure varia-
tion p
d
is also obtained from equilibrium considera-
tion. Indeed, the Gibbs free energy of the water in
the capillary pore and the adsorbed water located in
the hindered adsorption zone are equal. This leads to
the equation (Baant & Wittmann 1982):
( ) ln
a
d
a
RT
p h
M

= (26)
where
a
is the adsorbed water density; and M
a
is the
adsorbed water molar mass.
It should be emphasized that the disjoining pres-
sure is maximum at a relative humidity equal to 100
%.
The pressure applied to the solid skeleton results
from an average of the capillary pressure and the
disjoining pressure. These effects are taken into ac-
count by the saturation degree S
l
and a homogenized
coefficient
rd
:
sol rd l c
p S p = (27)
The coefficient
rd
can be identified from a dry-
ing shrinkage test.
The evolution of free drying shrinkage is derived
directly from the framework of the mechanics of un-
saturated porous media, using the concept of effec-
tive stress.
Indeed, effective stresses are related to the ap-
parent stresses and the pore pressure p

sol
, by the
following relationship (see Fig. 5) :
( ) 1
sol
p 1 = (28)


ii

sol
p
ii

1
ii

sol
p
ii

1


Figure 5. Effective stress concept (without cracking).

In the case of free drying shrinkage conditions
(no restrain), apparent stresses are equal to zero and
cracking does not occur. Hence, the behavior of the
solid skeleton reads:
( )
sol bc
E = (29)
(
Where E
sol
is the elastic stiffness of the solid
skeleton.
In the case of non constant effective stresses, ba-
sic creep strains may be evaluated by the superposi-
tion principle of Boltzmann:
( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) (
0
t
bc bc
sol
t t d h J

=
=
=

1
l
l
l
l
l
(30)
The use of Eq. 28, Eq. 29 and Eq. 30 allows for
rewriting the expression of the strain, which corre-
sponds in this case to the free drying shrinkage strain
:
ds

( ) ( ) ( )
1
0
0
t
ds bc
sol sol
p t d hp E J

= = +

(31)
with :
( )
0
1
sol
E = and ( ) 1
bc bc
sol
J = J (32)
Therefore, it is not necessary to introduce in the
strain decomposition (Eq. 1) the drying shrinkage
strain. Drying shrinkage results directly from the
elastic and delayed response of the solid skeleton,
which is included in the adopted framework (Eq.
27), as it has been suggested.
2.5 Coupling between creep, shrinkage and
cracking
In the case where drying and cracking occur si-
multaneously, the surface of voids increase and the
pore pressure applies on the cracks lip. Meanwhile,
the cracking induces a decrease of the pore pressure
effetc, due to the rearrangement of water molecules.
The relationship between pore pressure, the apparent
stress and the effective stresses reads (see Fig. 6) :
( ) ( ) 1
sol
I d I d
l
= +
l
(33)
where d is a tensor which is associated to the crack-
ing (which the terms values are between 0 and
). d is related to D by the relationship : 1
( ) 1 d D = (34)

The stress
sol
applied to the solid skeleton reads:
( ) ( ) ( )
1 1
0 si i j
t
c sol
ii c ii t sol
ii
sol
ij
D D

'
1
=
1
1
!
1
= 1
1+
p
(35)
2.6 Incremental-iterative solution procedure
During a time-step, the stress and the relative humid-
ity histories are approximated by linear functions:
( )
)
( )
( )
| |
1
1
1
1
,
with
n n n
n n
n n n n
n n n n
n n
n n n
t t t t t
h t h h
t t t t
h h h t t
t
t
+
+
+
+

= +

=


=

= +

=





(36)
n

By solving the differential Equations 20 and 23

with the approximation of stresses and relative hu-
midity (Eq. 36), the total creep strains can be ex-
pressed as (Benboudjema 2002):
1
1

n n
bc bc bc bc n bc n
+
+
= + + A B C (37)
where
n
bc
is the basic creep strains vector at time-
step number n; A
bc
, B
bc
and C
bc
are tensors (of sec-
ond orders) which depend only upon material pa-
rameters, relative humidity (h
n
and h
n+1
), t
n
and t.
The effective stresses at the end of the time step
number n are updated by the relationship:
( )
1 1 1 1
1 0 0

n n n n
n e p ds
+ + + + +
+
= = E E
1 n
bc
(38)
where
e
bc
,
p
bc
and
1 n+
are the elastic, plastic and
total strains vectors at time step number n+1, respec-
tively.

1
ii
d
ii

sol

ii

sol

ii
d
ii

ii

sol

1
ii
D
ii
D

1
ii
d
ii

sol

ii

sol

ii
d
ii

ii

sol

1
ii
D
ii
D


Figure 6. Effective stress concept (with cracking).

Finally, if one makes use of the Equation 38, the
stresses vector at the end of the time step reads:
( )
( )
1
1
1
0 0
1



tr n
n n 1 bc p
bc bc
tr n n n
n 1 bc p bc bc bc n
+
+ +

+
+
=

= +

E
E 1 E C E
E A B




(39)
where E
bc
is the stiffness tensor, corrected by creep
effect, and
tr
n+1
is the trial stress vector, corrected
by creep effect. They can be calculated at the begin-
ning of the time step, since all the involved quanti-
ties are known at this time.
Eq. (38) shows that the creep effect can be taken
into account without any noticeable changes in exist-
ing return mapping algorithms for soften-
ing/hardening plasticity (Simo & Taylor 1986, Feen-
stra 1993). The computed stress state is therefore
simultaneously affected by creep and cracking.
The governing equations of the softening plastic
model are non linear. Hence, a local iterative proce-
dure is used. During a time step, an Euler backward
integration scheme is adopted. The non-linear equa-
tions are solved by the Newton-Raphson method
(Simo & Taylor 1986). Therefore, the numerical so-
lution is unconditionally stable (Chen & Schreyer
1995).
3 VALIDATION OF THE MODELING
The validation of the modeling is performed. The
objective is to see if the model is able to retrieve the
main characteristics of drying shrinkage. Reanalysis
of the experimental results obtained by Granger
(1996) is undertaken in term of drying shrinkage
evolution (with respect to weight loss).
Drying shrinkage is performed on a concrete
specimen (mix 1:3,9:5,6:0,5) 16 cm in diameter and
100 cm in height. The strain is measured on a 50-cm
base located in the central part of the specimen,
which allows avoiding all boundary effects (Fig. 7).
An identically-sized specimen protected from desic-
cation serves to measure the level of autogeneous
shrinkage, which is then subtracted from total
shrinkage in order to derive the actual drying shrink-
age.
Basic creep tests are performed on a identical
specimen.


b) principle : shrinkage is
measured in the central
part of the sample
a) test : (by courtesy of
LCPC, Paris, France)
z
o
n
e

o
f

m
e
a
s
u
r
e
m
e
n
t

:

5
0

c
m


Figure 7. Test description.

First, drying parameters are identified from
weight loss measurements. Basic creep parameters
are also identified from experimental results. Then
drying shrinkage is simulated with the present
model. As presented in previous investigations, lin-
ear drying shrinkage model :
ds ds
k C 1 =

(40)
,coupled with damage or elastoplastic damage
models, fails to describe accurately the whole evolu-
tion of drying shrinkage strains (Benboudjema
2002).
Numerical simulations are performed. We display
in Fig. 8 the numerical and experimental evolutions
of drying shrinkage strains with respect to weight
loss. The evolution obtained with the linear drying
shrinkage model is also reported on the same figure.
The computations show that a best agreement
with the experimental results is reached with the
present model, especially at the end of the evolution.
The decomposition of the drying shrinkage strain
is plotted in Fig. 9. We can see that the amplitude of
the obtained structural strain (inelastic strain)
reaches a maximum value of about 180 m.m
-1
(25
% of the total drying shrinkage strain), which is not
negligible.


Experiment
0
250
500
750
0 0,5 1 1,5 2 2,5
Weight loss [%]
D
r
y
i
n
g

s
h
r
i
n
k
a
g
e

[

m
.
m
-
1
]
Linear drying
shrinkage model
Adopted
model


Figure 8. Drying shrinkage evolutions.


-200
0
200
400
600
0 0,5 1 1,5 2 2,5 3
Weight loss [%]
S
t
r
a
i
n
s

[

m
.
m
-
1
]
Free
drying
shrinkage
Inelastic
strain
Elastic
strain


Figure 9. Decomposition of the drying shrinkage strain.

Moreover, we can confirm a number of hypothe-
ses forwarded by various authors, namely (Fig. 9):
the drying of concrete begins by a phase of skin
cracking (see the inelastic strain) which does not
give rise to drying shrinkage;
afterwards, drying shrinkage becomes propor-
tional to weight loss (see the free drying shrink-
age).
Granger (1996) suggests that the asymptotic evo-
lution of drying shrinkage is due to partial crack clo-
sure. We found here that this not the case, since a
linear drying shrinkage model (see Fig. 8) do not
succeed to reproduce this behaviour. We show
through this simulation that this behaviour is a
purely intrinsic effect, since the Fig. 9 shows a de-
crease of the free drying shrinkage.
4 CONCLUSION
An unified approach for creep and drying shrink-
age has been proposed. It is suggested that drying
shrinkage is a consequence of the elastic and the de-
layed response (basic creep) of the solid skeleton
under pore pressure. The adopted modeling frame-
work, the mechanics of unsaturated porous media,
allows for modeling in a implicit fashion drying
shrinkage. This model has been coupled with a
cracking model (orthotropic elastoplastic damage
model). A simple drying model has been also used.
Experimental results of Granger (1996) have been
reanalyzed through numerical simulations. It shows
that the experimental evolution of drying shrinkage
can be reproduced more accurately, especially the
asymptotic evolution (in the drying shrinkage
weight loss diagram) with respect to a linear drying
shrinkage model.
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