Incorporating elastic and creep deformations in modelling the three-dimensional autogenous shrinkage of cement paste

A structure-based modelling framework was established to simulate the three-dimensional autogenous shrinkage of cement paste. A cement hydration model, HYMOSTRUC3D-E, was used to obtain the microstructures and ionic concentrations of the cement paste. A lattice fracture model based on the effective stress and effective modulus was used to consider the elastic and creep parts of autogenous shrinkage. For Portland cement pastes with water-to-cement ratios of 0.3 and 0.4 (where the time zero of autogenous shrinkage was set as the time of the drop in internal relative humidity), the simulated linear elastic autogenous shrinkage was respectively −188 and −79 μm/m at 160 h. The obtained linear total autogenous shrinkage including elastic and creep deformations was respectively −501 and −236 μm/m at 160 h. These values of the elastic autogenous shrinkage and total autogenous shrinkage are close to the predications of poromechanical models and experimental data obtained using a corrugated tube.