In this paper, the early-age basic creep behavior of
ordinary Portland cement concrete is investigated. The
experiments deal with the influence of age at loading, initial
stress/strength ratio and w/c ratio. It will be investigated
whether existing creep models can be applied to determine
creep in early age. Presumably, such models underestimate
the actual creep in early age. It will also be investigated
whether the creep response is linear for low stress/strength
ratios in the first days after mixing. If these hypotheses are
correct, the stresses calculated in early age by existing
models will be too high. Thus, a very high risk of cracking
will be predicted.