Section Analysis

Question: Is it justifiable to model the stresses in the concrete compression zone in flexure, using a stress-strain diagram corresponding to concentrically loaded prism or cylinder?

UNIFORM STRAINING

Strains vary linearly across the height of the section, therefore, every fiber in the compression zone undergoes strains at different rate.

STRESS-STRAIN RELATIONSHIP IN FLEXURE

Basic assumption: The cross-sections remain plane, and the rate of strain at a particular fiber is proportional to the distance from the neutral axis.
Please note: Stress distribution is also affected by the nature of the load. For monotonically increasing load it is mostly dependent on the rate at which the load is increased, for constant load, the duration of loading.

STRESS-STRAIN RELATIONSHIP IN FLEXURE

c2 y2 y1 c1

Within the same time span, t, fibers at farther distances to the neutral axis are loaded at a faster rate. That is; c2 > c1

STRESS-STRAIN RELATIONSHIP IN FLEXURE

STRESS-STRAIN RELATIONSHIP IN FLEXURE

The effect of creep, however, causes a rise of the descending branch of the stress-strain curves. With decreasing rate of straining, the value of maximum stress decreases gradually. These curves show how important the effect of time is on the behavior of the compression zone in flexure.

STRESS-STRAIN RELATIONSHIP IN FLEXURE

In the derivation of these stress-strain curves, for each rate of strain in the various fibers of the flexural compression zone, there appear the same stresses as in the corresponding fibers of a concentrically loaded prism! The resulting errors were found to be small with extensive experimental investigations, (Rsch, 1961)

Compressive Strain at the Extreme Fibers (for the new relation)

cu = ?

What are the values of compressive strain in the extreme fibers according to new laws of stress distribution?

Ultimate Compressive Strain at the Extreme Fibers

c

jd

Answer: In every load test the strain in the extreme fiber is always that value, which will yield the required internal moment. Mr = Fc jd = Mapp

The ultimate load is that corresponding to the maximum attainable value of the internal moment.

Ultimate Compressive Strain at the Extreme Fibers

(Rsch, 1961)
The stress distributions applying to different loading durations lead to different values of ultimate moment and ultimate strain. Rectangular section with specified fc and c/d ratio: Changing the c values you obtain differenf c Mc curves (about the centroid of the tension steel) can be obtained. For each loading duration the blue dot marks the ultimate strength. The corresponding strain is cu Red line shows the dependence of the ultimate moment on the duration of the loading

Fc jd

Effect of n.a. depth and Shape of Cross-Section on cu

ku = 1:

Larger compression area experiencing the peak stress lead to ultimate moment. Therefore cu = co

Effect of kud and Shape of Crosssection on cu

ku=1:

In T-beams the internal moment arm is ia almost independent of the position of the neutral axis. Thus, at ultimate load, the strain in the extreme fiber is always close to that which yield the maximum internal compressive force.

Major portion of the compression zone is located near the neutral axis (i.e. tension steel) Maximum internal moment is reached when these fibers are experiencing the maximum stress. Hence cu of triangular shape is much larger in this case. In triangular sections, the magnitude of the ultimate moment is strongly affected by the length of the lever arm of the internal forced as well as the magnitude of the internal compressive forces.

Effect of n.a. depth and Shape of Cross-Section on cu

The shape of the cross-section has a decisive effect on the value of the ultimate strain. For triangular compression zone (usually occurs in biaxial bending), the ultimate strain is twice that for T-beam.

Also the position of the neutral axis is of marked influence. This effect is least for T-beams and greatest for triangular compression zone.

Maximum Concrete Strain, cu

The maximum concrete strain, cu, can correctly be determined by applying the procedure given below: calculate Mr by assigning different values for the extreme fiber strain make a plot of Mr versus c the value of the extreme fiber strain corresponding to the maximum moment will be cu.
The procedure outlined above is not practical for design purposes. In the codes, a simpler approach should be used, like assigning a constant value for cu, say 0.003. The question is, with this constant value, will it be possible to calculate the ultimate moment with reasonable accuracy?

Maximum Concrete Strain, cu

1.9 %

Maximum Concrete Strain, cu

2.2 %

Stress Block
It would be reasonable to assume that the shape of the concrete stress distribution in the compression zone of a cross-section be same with the stress-strain diagram obtained from uniaxially loaded test specimens. However, as was discussed previously, stress-strain relationship of concrete changes with many variables like, rate of loading, concrete strength, confinement etc. Therefore, it can be concluded that no stress distribution can be considered exact and universal.

Stress Block
The properties of the stress block used in ultimate strength design are; the resultant force Fc and the centroid. Fc is equal to the volume under the stress block and is the centroid of this volume. Other than these two properties, the shape of the stress block is not important. For a rectangular compression zone, Fc and can be expressed by three non-dimensional parameters, k1, k3 and k2. Thus, Fc=k1 k3 fc b c and x = k 2c

It can be said that any stress block in which k1k3 and k2 agree with the experimental findings can be used in the equilibrium equations to predict the ultimate flexural strength of the section.

Stress Block
The most commonly used simplified stress blocks are; the rectangular block (USA) and the rectangular parabola (Europe).

The equivalent rectangular stress distribution

Stress Block
The most commonly used simplified stress blocks are; the rectangular block (USA) and the rectangular parabola (Europe).

The rectangle parabola stress block

Some engineers find the rectangular block too simple and prefer to use the CEB block, which appears to be more complicated. These engineers believe that more complicated, more sophisticated methods and models are better than the simple ones. This is not true.

Stress Block
The dimensionless resultant concrete force and moment calculated using the rectangular equivalent block and the rectangle-parabola (Eurocode 2) block are given in the table below for a given position of the neutral axis. For better comparison, values calculated using a more realistic stressstrain model (Modified Kent and Park) are also given.

4.3 %
Stress Distribution

2.3 %
Fc f c bc
0.720 0.690 0.730
k2

cu
0.003 0.0035 0.004(*)

Mc f c bc 2
0.414 0.404 0.440

Rectangle Eurocode Rectangular-Parabola Modified Kent & Park

0.425 0.415 0.438

(*) Assumed value. In Kent and Park Model, crushing strain is not specified.