Effects of manufactured-sand on dry shrinkage and creep of high-strength concrete

The influences of natural sand, manufactured-sand (MS) and stone-dust (SD) in the manufactured-sand on workability, compressive strength, elastic modulus, drying shrinkage and creep properties of high-strength concrete (HSC) were tested and compared. The results show that the reasonable content (7%-10.5%) of SD in MS will not deteriorate the workability of MS-HSC. It could even improve the workability. Moreover, the compressive strength increases gradually with the increasing SD content,and the MS-HSC with low SD content (smaller than 7%) has the elastic modulus which approaches that of the natural sand HSC, but the elastic modulus reduces when the SD content is high. The influence of the SD content on drying shrinkage performance of MS-HSC is closely related to the hydration age. The shrinkage rate of MS-HSC in the former 7 d age is higher than that of the natural sand HSC, but the difference of the shrinkage rate in the late age is not marked. Meanwhile the shrinkage rate reduces as the fly ash is added; the specific creep and creep coefficient of MS-HSC with 7% SD are close to those of the natural sand HSC.