Alkali-activated binders (AAS) can be used as an alternative to the Portland cement. AAS binder is made of slag activation with alkali materials without the use of Portland cement. Long-term deformations can lead to excessive structural deformations under service loads, which can lead to the serious problem in the structural performance. Elastic deformations, along with shrinkage and creep strain, also result in the loss of prestressed loads imposed on the concrete members. Understanding the properties of materials is necessary for proper structural modeling. Design guidelines and analytical models are based on experimental studies on Portland cement and are not necessarily applicable to the other binders. This thesis is intended to contribute to better understanding of the long-term shrinkage and creep of alkali-activated slag concrete and the prediction of long-term behavior of shrinkage and creep of alkali-activated concrete investigated based on experimental data. In this study, the combination of sodium hydroxide and glass water is used for activation. This thesis focuses on mechanical properties, modulus of elasticity, shrinkage and creep, and includes several concrete mixes that have been constructed and cured under different conditions. Concrete specimens are made of different alkali concentrations, sodium silicate modulus, water-to-binder ratio and slag-content. Some specimens were subjected to in-water curing, sealed and under elevated temperature, and mechanical properties, shrinkage and creep of concrete samples were measured. Then, the results will be interpreted and try to explain the reasons for the changes in the properties of this concrete with the help of previous studies, as well as experiments on scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) that performed on the samples. Finally, using experimental results and regression analysis, an analytical model was proposed to predict the shrinkage and creep of AAS concrete, and the proposed equations were compared with the measured results and the similarities and differences between the behavior of AAS and OPC concrete were compared. The results of present study, indicate that the shrinkage and creep of the AAS concrete are higher than the OPC concrete, which can cause structural problems in the long term. Reduction of alkali concentration and modulus of silicate sodium, long-term curing under elevated temperature, reduction of water-to-binder ratio and slag content, are the ways to improve mechanical properties and reduce the long-term deformation of the AAS concrete. Keywords: Concrete; Alkali-activated slag; Workability; Compressive strength; Shrinkage; Creep.
