Influence of rheological phenomena in timber-concrete composite beams

In the paper, a new numerical program developed to model the long-term behaviour of timber-concrete composite beams is introduced. It allows taking into account in a rigorous way all rheological phenomena, such as creep, mechano-sorptive effect, shrinkage and inelastic strains owing to variations of environmental temperature and relative humidity. The connection deformability is also considered. By means of a comparison with an experimental test, the capability of the program to predict the long-term behaviour is shown. The influence of different rheological phenomena on the total solution has been estimated. Timber mechano-sorptive effect, connection and timber creep affect very much the structural behaviour. Inelastic strains due to environmental condition changes (temperature and relative humidity) produce important effects as well.