Effect of Reinforcement on Early-Age Concrete Temperature Stress: Preliminary Experimental Investigation and Analytical Simulation

For concrete under short-term loading, effect of reinforcement on concrete crack resistance capability is usually negligible; however, recent research results show that extension of this viewpoint to concrete under long-term loading (temperature variation) may be unsuitable. In order to investigate this phenomenon, this paper presents the experimental and analytical results of early-age reinforced concrete temperature stress development under uniaxial restraint. The experiments were carried out on a temperature stress testing machine (TSTM). Experimental results show that the coupling of reinforcement and concrete creep behavior influenced the concrete temperature stress development, and nearly 16% of concrete stress was reduced in the current research. Moreover, the cracking time of reinforced concrete was also delayed. Finally, based on the principle of superposition, analytical simulations of effect of reinforcement on concrete temperature stress have been performed.