Numerical analysis of the thermal active restrained shrinkage ring test to study the early age behavior of massive concrete structures

Nevertheless, in this test, several phenomena occur simultaneously (hydration, shrinkage, creep…) and their effect cannot be easily decoupled. So, complementary tests have been performed to study each phenomenon separately and the ring test has been numerically simulated in order to identify coupling between creep and damage and to quantify the strength decrease due to construction joints. A good agreement between experimental and numerical results has been obtained for ring with reinforcement and construction joints. With the proposed model and the identified materials parameters validated on the active restrained ring test, numerical simulations of the construction of a real massive structure have been performed, and a parametric study has been achieved to highlight the creep effect.