ACI STRUCTURAL JOURNAL

Title no. 108-S41

TECHNICAL PAPER

Concrete Stress Block Method for Nuclear Containments

by Sungjin Bae
The design philosophy of nuclear concrete containments is to maintain a certain degree of leak tightness during abnormal/ extreme environmental conditions. To achieve this performance target, stress and strains of concrete and reinforcing steel are required to meet the allowable stress and strain requirements of ACI 359-07 (or Section III, Division 2 of ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code). Different levels of allowable stress and strains are specified depending on the load category, as their performance targets are different. Evaluating axial and flexural strengths for factored loads is a challenging task because the actual nonlinear distribution of concrete compressive stress needs to be considered in analyzing concrete sections. For service load conditions, a straight line of concrete stress-strain relationship is used to simplify the calculation for axial and flexural design. This paper proposes a concrete stress block method for designing nuclear containments. Stress block factors were developed based on ACI 359 requirements. With the use of the proposed stress block method, axial and flexural strengths of nuclear containments can be calculated in a manner similar to ACI 349. As such, a more consistent design approach can be implemented for both nuclear concrete containments and nuclear safety-related concrete structures. The accuracy of the proposed stress block method was examined using P-M interaction curves. Interaction curves from the proposed method were compared with results of the ACI 359 method. The comparison shows a good agreement between the proposed and ACI 359 methods.
Keywords: containments; nuclear; rectangular stress; stress block.

block was pioneered by Whitney.5 Whitney5 suggested that if the actual concrete stress distribution was replaced by a fictitious rectangular block of intensity of 0.85fc and of such a depth a that the area of 0.85fc a was equal to that of the actual stress distribution, then centroids of the actual stress distribution and rectangular stress block were nearly at the same level. This stress block method is a convenient design tool that simplifies the calculation of axial and flexural strengths. The purpose of this research is to propose an alternative design method to simplify the ACI 3591 design method for nuclear containments. For this purpose, the concept of the equivalent rectangular concrete stress block is adopted and used for the allowable stress and strain design of ACI 359.1 The proposed rectangular concrete stress block factors are developed based on the ACI 3591 requirements. Different stress block factors are proposed depending on the load category: 1) factored primary; 2) factored primary-plussecondary; 3) service primary; or 4) service primary-plussecondary. With the proposed stress block method, axial and flexural design strengths can be conveniently calculated in a similar manner to ACI 349.4 As such, a consistent design procedure can be used for both of nuclear containments and other nuclear safety-related concrete structures. The ACI 3591 (or Section III, Division 2 of ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code) is referred to as ASME in this paper. RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE The equivalent stress block method is presented for calculating axial and flexural strengths of reinforced and/or prestressed concrete members in nuclear containments. The allowable stress and strain design procedure in ASME requires complex calculation procedures using computer programs for factored loads. The proposed method simplifies the axial and flexural design of nuclear containments and provides a consistent design tool with other nuclear safety-related concrete structures. NUCLEAR DESIGN CODES Nuclear safety-related concrete structures: ACI 3494 ACI 3494 covers concrete structures in a nuclear power plant that have nuclear safety-related functions, but does not cover nuclear containments. The design provisions of ACI 3494 are similar to those of ACI 318.3 Axial and flexural strengths of concrete sections are calculated using an equivalent rectangular concrete stress distribution, where uniform concrete stress of 0.85fc is assumed to a distance a = 1c from the fiber of maximum compressive strain. Factor 1 is equal to 0.85 for
ACI Structural Journal, V. 108, No. 4, July-August 2011. MS No. S-2009-342.R1 received May 13, 2010, and reviewed under Institute publication policies. Copyright 2011, American Concrete Institute. All rights reserved, including the making of copies unless permission is obtained from the copyright proprietors. Pertinent discussion including authors closure, if any, will be published in the May-June 2012 ACI Structural Journal if the discussion is received by January 1, 2012.

INTRODUCTION The allowable stress and strain design approach is used in ACI 3591 to keep containments basically elastic under service loads and below the range of general yield under factored loads. In this design philosophy, stress and strains of concrete and reinforcing steel in a section are calculated and compared with allowable values. As the stress-strain relationship of concrete is not a straight line but some form of a nonlinear curve, the actual distribution of concrete compressive stress in a section has to be considered for factored loads. Alternatively, designing nuclear containments can be performed by computing a P-M interaction curve based on allowable stress and strains.2 A section is examined by comparing the interaction curve with applied loads. In either approach, designing nuclear containments using the ACI 3591 design methodology involves complex calculation procedures for factored loads because of the complexity of the nonlinear concrete stress distribution. As a result, a layer-bylayer analysis technique (or fiber analysis technique) is preferably used. On the other hand, a straight line of concrete stress-strain relationship is assumed for service loads to simplify the design procedure. The equivalent rectangular concrete stress block method is used for calculating ultimate strengths of concrete sections in ACI 318,3 which has been adopted in other concrete design codes, including ACI 3494 for nuclear safety-related concrete structures. The concept of this equivalent rectangular stress 434

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ACI Structural Journal/July-August 2011

ACI member Sungjin Bae is a Structural Engineer at Bechtel Corporation, Frederick, MD. He received his BS and MS from Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea, and his PhD from the University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX. He is a member of ACI Committee 209, Creep and Shrinkage of Concrete; 349, Concrete Nuclear Structures; and Joint ACI-ASCE Committee 441, Reinforced Concrete Columns. His research interests include the behavior and performance-based design of concrete columns and design of nuclear structures, foundations for dynamic equipment, and chimneys.

Table 2Allowable concrete compressive stress for service loads in ASME

Table 1Allowable concrete compressive stress for factored loads in ASME

concrete strengths up to 4000 psi (28 MPa) and is reduced gradually at a rate of 0.05 for each 1000 psi (7 MPa) of concrete strength in excess of 4000 psi (28 MPa) down to the limit value of 0.65. The ultimate compressive strain cu is 0.003. Nuclear containments: ASME Code1 Unlike ACI 349,4 ASME provides the allowable stress and strain design method for computing axial and flexural strengths of nuclear containments. This is because more direct control of concrete cracks is essential for nuclear containments to maintain a certain degree of leak tightness during abnormal/extreme environmental conditions. ASME provides two separate design methods for factored and service loads. Factored loadsAllowable concrete compressive stress for factored loads is shown in Table 1. Design conditions are categorized in the table as follows: 1) primary loads versus primary-plus-secondary loads; and 2) membrane only versus membrane and bending loads. A primary load is an internal force/moment that is required to equilibrate applied loads. A secondary load is an internal force/moment that is not required for equilibrating the applied loads. The example of secondary loads is an internal force/moment resulting from creep, shrinkage, or thermal strains. To perform a section response analysis to estimate stress and strains of concrete and reinforcing steel, stress-stain relationships of concrete and reinforcing steel are needed. For the concrete stress-strain relationship, ASME requires that the maximum allowable stress of 0.85fc correspond to a limiting strain of 0.002 for primary-plus-secondary and membrane and bending loads (refer to the note in Table 1). The limiting strain of 0.002 is generally considered to be the strain at which the design concrete strength is reached. Concrete tensile strength is ignored in axial and flexural design. ACI Structural Journal/July-August 2011

The allowable stress of reinforcing steel is 0.9fy. The allowable strain of reinforcing steel is permitted to exceed 0.9y for a few conditions but not exceed 2y for factored primary loads. No allowable tensile strain of reinforcing steel is provided for factored primary-plus-secondary loads. Service loadsTable 2 shows allowable concrete compressive stress for service loads. A straight concrete stress-strain relationship is used for analyzing section responses per Section CC-3511.2 of ASME. The concrete tensile strength is neglected. The allowable stress of reinforcing steel is 0.5fy. For primary-plus-secondary loads, allowable stress of reinforcing steel is permitted to increase by 33-1/3%. Allowable stress and strains of concrete and reinforcing steel for factored and service loads can be summarized as shown in Tables 3 and 4, respectively. In designing containments for axial and flexural loads, liner plates attached to the inside face of containments also need to be examined as per Section CC-3700 of ASME. LAYER-BY-LAYER SECTION ANALYSIS A concrete cross section can be idealized as a series of rectangular layers and assumed that the strain in each layer is uniform. The strain at each layer can be obtained if the curvature and the location of the neutral axis are given. The stress at each layer can be determined from stress-strain relationships of concrete and steel. Finally, the corresponding axial force and moment can be calculated by integrating the stresses. By repeating this procedure, a complete momentcurvature response can be computed. This analysis technique is named as layer-by-layer analysis (or fiber analysis). To apply this technique to analyzing nuclear containments, stress-stain relationships of concrete and reinforcing steel need to meet ASME design requirements. Therefore, different concrete stress-strain relationships are employed for factored and service load analysis. Factored loads The concrete stress-strain relationship proposed by Hognestad6 is used for analyzing the section response for factored load conditions. ASME requires that the concrete stress of 0.85fc should match with the limiting strain of 0.002 (refer to the note in Table 1) for primary-plussecondary and membrane and bending load analysis. To meet this requirement, Kohli and Grbz2 proposed a modified Hognestad6 stress-strain relationship by changing the 435

Table 3Summary of allowable stress of concrete in ASME

Membrane plus bending (1) Primary Factored loads (2) Primary plus secondary (3) Primary Service loads
*

Membrane 0.60fc 0.75fc 0.35fc (0.30fc ) 0.45fc

0.75fc 0.85fc * 0.45fc 0.60fc

(4) Primary plus secondary

At

Maximum allowable stress of 0.85fc corresponds to limiting strain of 0.002 in./in. initial prestress.

Table 4Summary of allowable stress/strains of reinforcement in ASME

Membrane plus bending (1) Primary Factored loads (2) Primary plus secondary Service loads (3) Primary (4) Primary plus secondary 0.90fy s may exceed 0.9y but not exceed 2y 0.90fy s may exceed 0.9y 0.50fy 0.67fy

Fig. 1Concrete stress-strain curve for factored loads.

concrete strain o to 0.002. The concrete strain o is the strain when the concrete reaches its maximum concrete stress. With this modification, the concrete stress-strain relationship for factored load analysis can be shown as 2 c c 2 f c = 0.85 f c ------- ---for o o o c o f c = 0.85 f c 1 0.15 ---------------------- 0.003 o for > o (1) Fig. 2Stress-strain curve of reinforcing steel. actual concrete relationship starts to deviate from the linear response beyond this stress level.8 More realistic concrete stress-strain relationship for service loads can be represented as 2 c c 2 f c = f c ------- ---for o o o (4)

(2)

where o is 0.002. The resulting concrete stress-strain curve is illustrated in Fig. 1. It is important to note that ASME limits the concrete strain to be less than or equal to 0.002 and therefore Eq. (2), where c > o , is not needed for the design purpose. The intent of inclusion of Eq. (2) is to present complete sectional responses from the layer-by-layer analysis for the purpose of illustration. The concrete tensile strength is neglected. Interestingly, the same concrete stress-strain relationship can be found in ACI 3077 for concrete chimneys. A bilinear stress-strain relationship is used for reinforcing steel, as illustrated in Fig. 2. The allowable steel stress of reinforcing steel is limited to 0.9fy as per ASME. Service loads Section CC-3511 of ASME specifies the use of a straight line concrete relationship with the modulus of elasticity of Ec for service loads, which can be represented as fc = Ec c (3)

Figure 3 shows the comparison between the ASME-specified straight line concrete relation and the more realistic concrete relation. The effect of the use of different concrete relations on estimating service axial and flexural strengths is examined and discussed in the following section. The concrete tensile strength is ignored. P-M interaction curves Once a layer-by-layer analysis is performed by using the stress-strain relationships of concrete and reinforcing steel described previously, a moment-curvature curve can be obtained. Section strengths can be determined by examining stress and strains at each curvature. Calculation procedures for determining flexural strengths are illustrated using a concrete member shown in Fig. 4. The concrete member has a rectangular section of 48 x 12 in. (1220 x 305 mm) with fc = 4000 psi (28 MPa) and reinforcing steel having fy = 60,000 psi (420 MPa). Table 5 summarizes the momentcurvature response result from factored load analysis at the axial load of 500 kips (2224 kN). The concrete stress-strain relationship of Eq. (1) with the descending relationship of Eq. (2) was employed in this analysis. Stress and strains of concrete at the extreme compression fiber and of the extreme ACI Structural Journal/July-August 2011

Given that the maximum allowable stress is 0.60fc for service loads, ASME permits the use of this linear elastic stress-strain relationship to the concrete stress of 0.60fc . Even though the concrete stress-strain relationship can be considered essentially linear up to the stress of 0.4fc , the 436

Table 5Reponse of concrete section at axial load of 500 kips (2224 kN): factored load analysis
c,bot , c,top, 10 /in. 10 /m ft-kip kN-m 103 fc,top /fc 103 fs,bot /fy Notes 0.000 0.00 0 0 0.27 0.21 0.27 0.13
3 3

Curvature

Moment

0.020 0.055 0.057 0.070 0.086

0.79 2.17 2.23 2.76 3.40 4.17 6.45 9.84

489 734 740 794 850 868 885 859

663 995 1003 1076 1152 1177 1200 1165

0.74 1.31 1.34 1.53 1.76 2.00 2.73 4.05

0.51 0.75 0.76 0.80 0.84 0.85 0.76 0.59

0.10 0.99 1.03 1.40 1.86 2.44 4.14 6.43

0.05 fc,top = 0.48 0.75 fc 0.50 0.68 0.90 fs,bot = 0.90fy

Fig. 3Concrete stress-strain curves for service loads.

0.106 0.164 0.250

fc,top = 0.90 0.85 fc = 0.90 s,bot 2.0y 0.90

Table 6Reponse of concrete section at axial load of 500 kips (2224 kN): service load analysis
c,bot , c,top, 10 /in. 10 /m ft-kip kN-m 103 fc,top /fc 103 fs,bot /fy Notes 0.000 0.000 0 0 0.24 0.21 0.24 0.11
3 3

Curvature

Moment

Fig. 4Section details. tensile steel are included in this table. Design moment strengths can be determined by comparing the estimated stress and strains with allowable limits in Tables 3 and 4. The design moment strengths are 734 ft-kip (995 kN-m) for the factored primary membrane plus bending loads and 868 ft-kip (1177 kN-m) for the factored primary-plus-secondary membrane plus bending loads. Similar moment-curve response can be obtained from service load analysis by using the straight line concrete relationship of Eq. (3). The analysis results are summarized in Table 6. The estimated design flexural strengths are 382 ft-kip (518 kN-m) for the service primary membrane and bending loads and 549 ft-kip (744 kN-m) for the service primary-plus-secondary membrane and bending loads. The same procedure can be repeated by varying axial loads to generate P-M interaction curves, as shown in Fig. 5. It is interesting to note that the design strengths at high axial loads are governed by the membrane-alone condition. As each P-M interaction curve represents design strengths at allowable stress and strain limits, containment structures can be evaluated by comparing external loads(Ms , Ps) or (Mu , Pu)with corresponding interaction curve to determine whether stress and strains of concrete and reinforcing steel are within allowable stress and strain limits. Concrete stress and steel strains at design strengths for factored primary-alone and factored primary-plus-secondary loads are further examined in relation to the axial load level, as also shown in Fig. 5. For factored primary-alone load conditions, design strengths at high compressive loads were governed by the allowable concrete stress. When axial loads were below the balanced load, design strengths were controlled by the allowable strain of reinforcing steel. On the other hand, design strengths were always governed by the allowable concrete stress for factored primary-plussecondary load conditions, as tensile strain in reinforcement was not limited. ACI Structural Journal/July-August 2011

0.004 0.011 0.020 0.033 0.051

0.163 0.437 0.773 1.303 1.994

144 382 549 683 794

196 518 744 926 1076

0.33 0.50 0.67 0.87 1.09

0.30 0.45 0.60 0.78 0.98

0.16 0.08 = f 0.03 0.02 c,top 0.45fc 0.16 0.52 1.03 fc,top = 0.08 0.60 fc 0.25 0.50 fs,bot = 0.50fy

Examination of linear-elastic assumption for service loads The P-M interaction curves for service loads in Fig. 5 were obtained by using the linear-elastic concrete stress-strain relationship. These curves are compared with those from more realistic stress-strain relationship of Eq. (4). The comparison in Fig. 6 indicates that the use of the straight line of concrete underestimated service design strengths. The strain and stress distributions for service primaryplus-secondary load case are further examined as shown in Fig. 7. The concrete strain corresponding to the allowable concrete stress of 0.60fc decreased when the straight line concrete relation was used. The same trend can be observed in Fig. 3. As the concrete strain in the top fiber reduced, strains and stresses of both compressive and tensile reinforcing steel decreased and, thus, the design strength was underestimated. PROPOSED RECTANGULAR STRESS BLOCK METHOD An equivalent rectangular stress block method is proposed to simplify the calculation of design strengths of reinforced and/or prestressed nuclear concrete containments. Three stress block factors are defined for this purpose, which are shown in Fig. 8: 1) 1 factor, which is used to define an average concrete stress; 2) 1 factor to define the depth of the equivalent stress block; and 3) allowable concrete strain of c,allow. The 1 and 1 factors are derived in the following manner: the first step is to assign the concrete stress distribution (Fig. 9). A linear strain distribution was used and the 437

Fig. 5P-M interaction curve: layer-by-layer analysis. (Note: 1 kip = 4.448 kN; 1 ft-kip = 1.356 kN-m.) equating the area under the actual stress-strain curve to the area under the rectangular stress block. The entire procedure was repeated by varying the concrete stress fc,allow. Figure 10 shows the analytically derived 1 and 1 factors in relation to the concrete stress level, fc,allow /fc . The 1 factor, which represents the average stress of the concrete stress distribution, decreased almost linearly with the decrease of the concrete stress fc,allow (refer to Fig. 10(a)). The allowable membrane-alone stress is also marked in relation to the corresponding allowable membrane and bending stress in the figure. Interestingly, analytically derived 1 factors show good agreement with allowable membrane-alone stress. This implies that the concrete strain energy, which is the area under concrete stress distribution, is maintained at a similar level between axial and flexural loads and axial-alone loads for each load category. On the other hand, the analytically derived 1 factors were less sensitive to the level of the allowable concrete stress. The allowable strain c,allow at each concrete allowable stress was derived from the concrete stress-strain relationship, as shown in Fig. 10(b). The concrete stress block factors are proposed based on these analytical results, which are summarized in Table 7. The proposed 1 factors are selected to match with the allowable membrane-alone stress levels at each loading condition. A constant 1 of 0.70 is used. The allowable concrete strains c,allow are calculated from the concrete stress-strain relationship of Eq. (1) for factored loads and from the straight line theory for service loads. If the allowable stress of the triangular stress distribution is assumed to be kfc for service loads, the 1 and 1 factors can be calculated as 0.75k and 0.67, respectively. The corresponding 1 factors are 0.34 and 0.45 for primary-alone and primary-plussecondary conditions, respectively. The proposed 1 factors for service loads in Table 7 are consistent to these theoretical values. On the other hand, the same 1 factor of 0.70 is proposed for both factored and service loads. In addition, if no prestress is applied, the compressive axial strength of concrete sections is limited to the concrete stress of 0.30fc for service primary load conditions to be consistent with the ASME requirement. Comparison of P-M interaction curves Using the proposed stress block factors, P-M interaction curves can be produced in a similar manner to ACI 3494 (or ACI 3183). Figure 11 illustrates a typical P-M interaction curve used in ACI 349.4 Strain profiles are categorized as: ACI Structural Journal/July-August 2011

Fig. 6Comparison of P-M interaction curves for service loads. (Note: 1 kip = 4.448 kN; 1 ft-kip = 1.356 kN-m.)

Fig. 7Comparison of strain and stress distribution at axial load of 500 kips (2224 kN). corresponding concrete stress distribution was produced using the concrete stress-strain relationship of Eq. (1). The zero-stress is the stress at the neutral axis and the concrete stress, and fc,allow is the stress at the extreme concrete compression fiber. It is important to note that the concrete stress fc,allow is closely related to allowable concrete stress for membrane and bending conditions, as the concrete stress distribution in Fig. 9 corresponds to the stress profile under axial and bending loads. The second step is to find the centroid of the stress distribution, where the concrete compressive force is located (Fig. 9). The location of the concrete compressive force can be expressed as 1c/2. The 1 factor was derived by equating the centroid of the concrete stress distribution to 1c/2. Finally, the 1 factor was determined by 438

Fig. 8Rectangular concrete stress block for ACI 3494 (or ACI 3183). Table 7Proposed concrete stress block parameters for ASME
1 (1) Primary Factored loads (2) Primary plus secondary (3) Primary* Service loads (4) Primary plus secondary 0.60 0.75 0.34 0.45 1 0.70 0.70 0.70 0.70 c,allow 0.0013 0.0020 0.45fc /Ec 0.60fc /Ec

*At no prestress conditions, compressive axial strength shall be limited to P allow = 0.30fc Ac+ (0.30fc Es /Ec)As. Straight line stress-strain relation used for service loads.

Fig. 9Definition of concrete rectangular stress block for ASME.

Fig. 10Derived rectangular stress block parameters for ASME. ACI Structural Journal/July-August 2011

1) above-balanced; 2) balanced; and 3) below-balanced. The concrete compressive strain in the top fiber is always 0.003 at ultimate strengths for all cases, whereas the strain of the extreme tension steel varies. This is because the tensile strain of reinforcing steel is not limited in ACI 349.4 Figure 12 illustrates a P-M interaction curve and strain profiles in accordance with ASME. Figure 12(c) shows that the concrete compressive strain can be less than the allowable strain. This occurs because ASME limits tensile strain of reinforcing steel except for factored primary-plus-secondary loads. As a result, the concrete stress in the top fiber decreases from an allowable concrete stress fc,allow to meet the force equilibrium when a tensile reinforcing steel reaches an allowable strain. The same observation can be made in Fig. 5, where the concrete stress in the top fiber becomes less than the allowable stress as the allowable tensile strain is reached for factored primary loads. The decrease of concrete stress in the top fiber introduces a reduction of the corresponding concrete compressive force Cc. Therefore, the 1 factor needs to be adjusted to reflect the reduction of the concrete compressive force when the concrete strain is smaller than the allowable concrete strain c,allow. Figure 10(a) shows an almost linear relationship between the 1 factor and the concrete stress. Based on this observation, a modification factor of (c /c,allow) is proposed for the c factor, as illustrated in Fig. 13. Detailed examples of calculating design strengths using the proposed stress block method with the modification factor can be found in Appendix A. The validity of the proposed stress block method is examined using P-M interaction curves for the concrete section shown in Fig. 4. The comparison of P-M interaction curves from the proposed concrete stress block method and those from the ASME method is summarized in Fig. 14. The ASME method 439

Fig. 13Below-balanced condition at steel allowable tensile strain.

Fig. 11Typical P-M curve and corresponding strain profiles in ACI 3183 and ACI 349.4

Fig. 14Comparison between proposed stress block and ASME method. (Note: 1 kip = 4.448 kN; 1 ft-kip = 1.356 kN-m.) stress/strain conditions. In other words, the proposed method cannot be used to find stress and strains of concrete and reinforcing steel at general loads. CONCLUSIONS A stress block method was developed based on the ASME design requirements for nuclear containments. The proposed method provides a simple alternative design procedure to the traditional ASME design method. Because the actual concrete stress-strain curve is replaced by the equivalent stress block in the proposed method, the calculation of axial and flexural strengths of reinforced and/or prestressed nuclear concrete containments can be simplified. The validity of the proposed method was examined using P-M interaction curves and demonstrated that accurate and reliable estimations of axial and flexural strengths can be obtained. The proposed stress block method makes it possible to use a consistent design procedure for both nuclear containments and other nuclear safety-related structures by changing concrete stress block factors and strain limits. The proposed design procedure is applicable to both factored and service load design of nuclear containments. The great advantage of the proposed stress block method is simplifying the nuclear containment design for factored loads. In comparison, the ASME design method can be only performed using a computerized structural design tool and requires completely different analysis procedures for factored and service loads. In addition, the proposed stress block method provides a single smooth P-M interaction curve that can be used for both membrane-only and membrane-plus-bending loads. On the other hand, the ASME design method requires separate strength calculations for membrane-only and membraneplus-bending loads. ACI Structural Journal/July-August 2011

Fig. 12Typical P-M curve and corresponding strain profiles in ASME. employed the layer-by-layer analysis technique using the concrete curve of Eq. (1) for factored loads and the straight line of Eq. (3) for service loads. The P-M interaction curves for service loads based on the more realistic concrete relationship of Eq. (4) are also included. Figure 14 shows that estimated design strengths of the proposed stress block and ASME methods are in good agreement. The proposed stress block method yields accurate and conservative predictions for factored loads. For service loads, the proposed stress block method yields slightly larger design strengths than the ASME method around balanced conditions. It is important to note, however, that the ASME method underestimates design strengths because of the use of the straight line assumption. A comparison with the results from the concrete relationship of Eq. (4) indicates that the proposed stress block method provides accurate and conservative estimations for service loads as well. It is worth pointing out that the proposed stress block method is applicable only to calculating design strengths at allowable 440

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The technical suggestions and support offered by M. Das, J. Munshi, and B. Basu of Bechtel Corporation are greatly appreciated. The opinions, findings, and conclusions in this paper are those of the author.

NOTATION
a b Cc c d Ec Es fc fc fc,allow fc,top fs fs,bot fy h M Ms Mu P Ps Pu Ts 1 1 = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = depth of equivalent rectangular stress block in Fig. 8 section width of concrete section compressive force in concrete; refer to Fig. 8 distance from extreme compression fiber to neutral axis in Fig. 8 effective depth of concrete section modulus of elasticity of concrete: 57,000fc in psi (4700fc in MPa) modulus of elasticity of steel concrete stress compressive strength of concrete allowable concrete stress for membrane-plus-bending loads; refer to Table 3 concrete stress at extreme compression fiber tensile stress in steel stress in longitudinal tension steel yield strength of steel depth of concrete section moment moment for service load moment for factored load axial force (or membrane force) axial force for service load axial force for factored load tensile force in steel; refer to Fig. 8 factor relating average concrete compressive stress to concrete compressive strength fc ; refer to Fig. 8 factor relating depth of equivalent rectangular compressive stress block to neutral axis depth; refer to Fig. 8 concrete strain allowable concrete compressive strain; refer to Table 7 concrete strain at extreme compression fiber maximum concrete strain used in ACI 3183 strain at peak concrete compressive stress; refer to Eq. (1) and (2) allowable steel tensile strain; refer to Table 4 strain in longitudinal tension steel yield strain of steel in tension

strain, y = fy /Es , is 60 ksi/29,000 ksi = 0.00207. The section width b is 12 in., the effective section depth d is 42 in., and the steel area As is 1.0 in.2 from Fig. A1. Note that 1 in. = 25.4 mm; 1 kip = 4.448 kN; 1000 psi = 6.895 MPa; and 1 ft-kip = 1.356 kN-m. Factored primary loadsThe stress block factors and allowable strains corresponding to factored primary loads are 1 = 0.60; 1 = 0.70; c,allow = 0.0013; s,allow = 2y = 0.00414 from Tables 4 and 7. Assume the strain condition (d) in Fig. 12, where top concrete reaches the allowable strain of c,allow and the bottom tensile steel exceeds the strain of 0.9y. Force equilibrium requires Cc Ts = 0 (1 fc )ab (0.9fy)As = 0
2 ( 0.9 f y ) A s ( 0.9 60 ksi ) ( 1.0 in. ) a = --------------------- = ------------------------------------------------------- = 1.875 in. ( 1 f c ) b ( 0.60 4 ksi ) ( 12 in. )

a 1.875 in. c = ---- = -------------------- = 2.679 in. 1 0.70 Verifying assumed strains using the strain compatibility,
c in. 2.679 in. 0.0013 = 0.019 > s = d ---------- = 42 ---------------------------------------s, allow c c, allow 2.679 in. = 0.00414

= c c,allow = c,top = c,u = o = s, allow = s,bot = = y

Therefore, the assumed strain condition (d) is invalid. Assume the stain condition (c) in Fig. 12 and find the concrete strain that satisfies the strain compatibility and force equilibrium. c c - = --------------------- 0.00414 c = --------- d c s, allow 42 in. c ( 0.9 f y ) A s a = -------------------------------------------= 1 c c ---------------b f 1 c, allow c ( 0.9 60 ksi ) ( 1.0 in. ) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- = 0.70 c c 0.60 -------------- - 4 ksi ( 12 in. ) 0.0013
2

REFERENCES
1. Joint ACI-ASME Committee 359, Code for Concrete Containments (ACI 359-07), American Concrete Institute, Farmington Hills, MI, Part of Division 2 of ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code, Section III, 2007. 2. Kohli, T. D., and Grbz, O., Optimum Design of Reinforced Concrete for Nuclear Containments, Including Thermal Effects, Proceedings of the Second ASCE Specialty Conference on Structural Design of Nuclear Plant Facilities, New Orleans, LA, Dec. 1975, pp. 1292-1319. 3. ACI Committee 318, Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete (ACI 318-08) and Commentary, American Concrete Institute, Farmington Hills, MI, 2008, 473 pp. 4. ACI Committee 349, Code Requirements for Nuclear Safety-Related Concrete Structures (ACI 349-06) and Commentary, American Concrete Institute, Farmington Hills, MI, 2006, 153 pp. 5. Whitney, C. S., Design of Reinforced Concrete Members under Flexure or Combined Flexure and Direct Compression, ACI JOURNAL, Proceedings V. 33, Mar.-Apr. 1937, pp. 483-498. 6. Hognestad, E., A Study of Combined Bending and Axial Load in Reinforced Concrete Members, Bulletin Series No. 399, University of Illinois Engineering Experiment Station, Urbana, IL, 1951, 128 pp. 7. ACI Committee 307, Code Requirements for Reinforced Concrete Chimneys (ACI 307-08) and Commentary, American Concrete Institute, Farmington Hills, MI, 2008, 34 pp. 8. Nawy, E.G., Prestressed Concrete: A Fundamental Approach, second edition, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 1996, 789 pp.

(A1)

(A2)

Solving Eq. (A1) and (A2) gives that a = 3.88 in., c = 0.00063 < c,allow = 0.0013 and s,allow = 2y; thus

APPENDIX AEXAMPLE PROBLEMS FOR STRESS BLOCK METHOD Example 1 Compute the flexural strength of the concrete section shown in Fig. A1 for the pure bending case (P = 0 kip). For the purpose of illustration, the compressive steel is not included. Use fc = 4000 psi and fy = 60,000 psi. The yield ACI Structural Journal/July-August 2011

Fig. A1Section details of Examples 1 and 2. 441

2 a 3.877 in. - = ( 0.9 60 ksi ) ( 1.0 in. ) 42 in. -------------------M = ( 0.9 f y ) A s d - 2 2

Solving the previous two equations gives that a = 4.70 in., c = 0.00026 < c,allow = 0.0005, and s = 0.5y 4/3 = 0.00138. a M = ( 0.5 f y 4/3 ) A s d -- = 132 ft-kip 2 Example 2 Compute the flexural strength of the same concrete section shown in Fig. A1 for the axial compression of P = 500 kip. Factored primary loadsThe stress block factors and allowable strains are 1 = 0.60; 1 = 0.70; c,allow = 0.0013; s,allow = 2y = 0.00414 from Tables 4 and 7. Assume the strain condition (c) in Fig. 12, where the bottom tensile steel reaches the strain of 2.0y. The strain compatibility requires c c = --------------------- - 0.00414 c = --------- d c s, allow 42 in. c From the force equilibrium of Cc Ts = P, P + ( 0.9 f y ) A s a = -------------------------------------------= 1c c ---------------b f 1 c, allow c 500 kip + (0.9 60 ksi)(1.0 in. ) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ = 0.70 c c 0.60 -------------- - 4 ksi ( 12 in. ) 0.0013
2

= 180 ft-kip

Factored primary-plus-secondary loadsThe stress block factors and allowable concrete strain are 1 = 0.75; 1 = 0.70; and c,allow = 0.002 from Table 7. No tensile steel strain is provided (refer to Table 4). Assume the strain condition (d) in Fig. 12, where top concrete reaches the allowable strain of c,allow and the bottom tensile steel exceeds the strain of 0.9y. Force equilibrium requires ( 0.9 f y ) A s a = --------------------- = 1.5 in. ( 1 f c ) b dc - s = ---------= 0.037 > 0.9 y = 0.00186 c c, allow a M = ( 0.9 f y ) A s d -- = 186 ft-kip 2 Service primary loadsThe stress block factors and allowable strains are defined as 1 = 0.34; 1 = 0.70; c,allow = 0.45fc /Ec = 0.0005; s,allow = 0.5y = 0.00103 from Tables 4 and 7. The flexural strength for service primary loads will be obtained when either concrete or tensile steel reaches its allowable strain. Assume that steel reaches the allowable strain of 0.5y (refer to strain condition (c) in Fig. 12). c - c = --------- d c s, allow ( 0.5 f y ) A s a = -------------------------------------------= 1 c c ---------------b f 1 c, allow c Solving the previous two equations gives that a = 4.68 in. and c = 0.00020 < c,allow = 0.0005. a M = ( 0.5 f y ) A s d -- = 99 ft-kip 2 Service primary-plus-secondary loadsThe stress block factors and allowable strains are defined as 1 = 0.45; 1 = 0.70; c,allow = 0.60fc /Ec = 0.00067; s,allow = 0.5y 4/3 = 0.00138 from Tables 4 and 7. Using these design parameters, the flexural strength for service primary-plus-secondary loads can be calculated in the same manner as described previously. Assume that steel reaches the allowable stress of 0.5fy 4/3 (refer to strain condition (c) in Fig. 12). c - c = --------- d c s, allow ( 0.5 f y 4/3 ) A s a = -------------------------------------------= 1 c c ---------------b f 1 c, allow c 442

(A3)

(A4)

Solving the previous two equations gives that a = 10.65 in., c = 0.0023 > c,allow = 0.0013. Therefore, the assumed strain condition (c) is invalid. Assume the stain condition (a) in Fig. 12 at which reinforcing steel does not reach the allowable strain. dc 42 in. c - - 0.0013 = -------------------- s = --------- c c, allow c P + ( Es s ) As a = ------------------------------ = 1c ( 1 f c ) b 500 kips + (29,000 ksi s ) ( 1.0 in. ) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- = 0.70c ( 0.60 4 ksi ) (12 in.)
2

(A5)

(A6)

Solving the previous two equations gives that a = 18.17 in., c = c,allow = 0.0013, and s = 0.0008 < 0.9y = 0.00186. -- d = 685 ft-kip M = ( 1 f c ) ab h --a -- ( E s s ) A s h 2 2 2 Factored primary-plus-secondary loadsThe stress block factors and allowable strains are 1 = 0.75; 1 = 0.70; c,allow = 0.002 from Table 7. No tensile steel strain is provided (refer to Table 4). Assume that reinforcing steel does not reach the allowable strain (refer to strain condition (a) in Fig. 12). ACI Structural Journal/July-August 2011

Fig. A2Comparisons of strain profiles for P = 0 kips (0 kN). (Note: 1 ft-kip = 1.356 kN-m.) d c 42 in. c - = --------------------- 0.002 s = --------- c c, allow c P + ( Es s ) As a = ------------------------------ = 1 c ( 1 f c ) b 500 kip + (29,000 ksi s ) ( 1.0 in. ) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ = 0.70 c ( 0.75 4 ksi ) ( 12 in. )
2

Fig. A3Comparisons of strain profiles for P = 500 kips (2224 kN). (Note: 1 ft-kip = 1.356 kN-m.) P + ( Es s ) As a = ------------------------------ = 1 c ( 1 f c ) b Solving the previous two equations gives that a = 30.60 in., c = c,allow = 0.0005, and s = 0.00002. M = ( 1 f c ) ab h --a -- ( E s s ) A s h -- d = 361 ft-kip 2 2 2 Service primary-plus-secondary loadsThe stress block factors and allowable strains are 1 = 0.45; 1 = 0.70; c,allow = 0.60fc /Ec = 0.00067; s,allow = 0.5y 4/3 = 0.00138 from Tables 4 and 7. Using these design factors, the flexural strength can be calculated in the same manner as before. The results are that a = 23.38 in., c = c,allow = 0.00067, s = 0.00017 < s,allow = 0.00138, and M = 526 ft-kip. Comparisons of calculated strain profiles and predicted flexural strengths between the proposed and the ASME methods are shown in Fig. A2 and A3. The proposed stress block method provides accurate estimations of strain profiles and flexural strengths. 443

(A7)

(A8)

Solving the previous two equations gives that a = 15.36 in., c = c,allow = 0.002, and s = 0.00183 < 0.9y = 0.00186. h h a - d = 832 ft-kip M = ( 1 f c ) ab -- -- ( E s s ) A s -2 2 2 Service primary loadsThe stress block factors and allowable strains are defined as 1 = 0.34; 1 = 0.70; c,allow = 0.45fc /Ec = 0.0005; s,allow = 0.5y = 0.00103 from Tables 4 and 7. Assume that concrete reaches the allowable strain, s,allow (refer to strain condition (a) in Fig. 12). d c - s = --------- c c, allow ACI Structural Journal/July-August 2011