Due to the unpredictable nature and variability of early age shrinkage and cracking, it is not possible to accurately estimate deflections in the early ages (30-90 days). As such, load history deflection results for ages less than 90 days should be used with extreme caution. When evaluating differential deflections between long-term deflections and early age deflections (such as at time of installation of partitions), a generally conservative approach could be to compare the long-term load history deflections with the deflection results for the load combination (linear elastic results) in place at time of application of partitions (which would not include the effects of shrinkage, creep, and cracking).

Additionally, deflection calculations can be somewhat sensitive to finite element mesh size. For best results using load history calculations, at least 12 elements per bay are recommended with a cross section spacing approximately equal to the resulting element size.