Long-term deflections of reinforced concrete elements: accuracy analysis of predictions by different methods

Abstract

Long-term deflection response of reinforced concrete flexural members is influenced by the interaction of complex physical phenomena, such as concrete creep, shrinkage and cracking, which makes their prediction difficult. A number of approaches are proposed by design codes with different degrees of simplification and accuracy. This paper statistically investigates accuracy of long-term deflection predictions made by some of the most widely used design codes (Eurocode 2, ACI 318, ACI 435, and the new Russian code SP 52-101) and a numerical technique proposed by the authors. The accuracy is analyzed using test data of 322 reinforced concrete members from 27 test programs reported in the literature. The predictions of each technique are discussed, and a comparative analysis is made showing the influence of different parameters, such as sustained loading duration, compressive strength of concrete, loading intensity and reinforcement ratio, on the prediction accuracy.