Prediction of creep effect in segmental concrete bridge construction

Presented is a theoretically sound and practical approach for determining concrete creep effects on deflection and stress distributions in reinforced concrete bridges subject to structural system changes during construction. An approximate solution adopted by the American Concrete Institute (ACI) sometimes produces a significant error and considers only one structural system change. An exact solution would require calculation of an integral relaxation function. A simplified and accurate solution for determining concrete creep effects for any number of structural system changes is described. The proposed method is as simple to implement as the ACI method and is highly accurate.