AS3: REINFORCED CONCRETE DESIGN

MODULE 1:
INTRODUCTION TO REINFORCED CONCRETE DESIGN
What is Reinforced Concrete?
A construction material combining Concrete and Reinforcing Steel
o Concrete

Mixture of Sand, Gravel and crushed
rock(aggregate) held together in a rock like
mass with a paste of cemend and water.

Is Basically Artificial Stone.

Very High Compressive Strength

Very Low Tensile Strength.
o Reinforcing Steel/ReBar

Commonly used as a tension device for Concrete.

Very High Tensile Strength
It is used for almost all structures in one form or another.
Why use Reinforced Concrete?
Because Concrete is such a cost effective building material, early builders have
sought ways to overcome its most glaring weakness, its low tensile strength. To explain
further consider a plank of concrete on Fig. 1.
W in Kn/m

As it is, nothing will happen to the plank even if it will be loaded as shown, mainly
because it is supported all throughout its length. If the plank will be raised off the
ground as in Fig 2
W in Kn/m

Noticeable cracks will start to develop at the lower half of the plank along the middle
region. This is because that part is in tension.

Early Builders
used simple
engineering
solutions
to
compensate for the lack of tensile
strength of stone. One of the
techniques
developed
and
perfected was to use Continuous
Arches as shown in the figure.
This has been widely used in early
construction of bridges, churches
and similar structures. A clear
disadvantage of this is that it has
to have at least three arches in
succession for it to be effective.
Otherwise, the abutments will
have to be very massive. But even so, the abutments still remain quite substantial
because of the nature of the Arch.
The Free Body Diagram(FBD)
of an arch will illustrate why that
happens. As the figure shows,
when an arch is loaded vertically
downwards, that load will divide
itself to the two supporting
abutments. In short, all of the
force including the weight of the
arch will be carried by the
abutments. Hence, its massive size. The Photo below is an example of an ancient
bridge which utilizes the continuous arch technology. Take note of the size of its
abutments.

As discussed on the FBD, arch

systems produces a massive kick to
its supporting abutments, thus needing
for strong supports. In cases when a
continuous arch system is not possible,
the supporting structure (usually a pier
or column) will be subject to huge
amount of stresses that if not
counteracted can result in a collapse.
For this case Buttresses can be
utilized to counteract such forces. The
buttresses can actually help eliminate
the tensile stress that can develop on
the supporting columns. These can be
wildly seen on old masonry churches
where reinforcing is still not used.

As you can observe, just by itself, stone/masonry structures will tend to be massive by
todays standards. Providing reinforcing steel will compensate the low tensile strength of
the concrete and will result in smaller, slender structural members. Using reinforcing
steel with concrete will result in a material with a High Compressive Strength and a
Considerable amount of Tensile Strength. Giving the builder the best of both
materials.
Going back to Fig 2, one can now eliminate the cracking that will develop by placing
steel reinforcements to counteract the tension on the underside of the plank

Advantages/Disadvantages of Reinforced Concrete

Advantages
 Considerable compressive strength as compared to other materials.
 Ideal for foundations
 Has great resistance to fire and water.
 Best structural material for underwater and off-shore
applications
 During fires of average intensity, RC members suffer only
surface damages without failure
 RC structures are very rigid.
 Low Maintenance material and a very long service life.
 Can be casted into an extraordinary variety of shapes.
 Lower grade of skilled labor is required for construction.
Disadvantages
 Forms are required to hold the concrete in place until it hardens
sufficiently. (Forms can be removed on the 7th day or when the concrete
reaches at least 70% of its design strength)

 28 days for full concrete curing

 Recent Solutions/Advancements
 An option is to use Pre-Cast Concrete or
 Using admixtures
 Produce High-Strength, Early Setting Concrete
(High-Early Concrete)
 Low strength per unit weight of concrete leads to heavy members as
compared to Structural Steel.
 Recent Solutions/Advancements
 Pre-stressed Concrete greatly reduces member sizes.
 Development of High-Strength Concrete
 Compressive Strength (fc) ranging from 8000psi
to as high as 20000psi (55 Mpa to 140 Mpa)
 Properties of Concrete vary widely due to variations in its proportioning
and mixing.

Material Properties of Reinforced Concrete

 Compressive Strength (fc)
 Determined by testing to failure 28-day old 6x12 concrete cylinders at a
specified rate of loading
 21 Mpa(3000psi)
Ordinary Applications
 28 Mpa(4000psi)
 35 Mpa(5000psi)
Prestressed Construction
 41 Mpa(6000psi)
 55 Mpa(8000psi) to 70 Mpa(10000psi) specialized Applications

 Static Modulus of Elasticity(Ec)

 For normal weight concrete
 Ec= wc1.5 (.043) fc
Where:
fc = compressive strength (Mpa)
3
wc = unit weight of concrete (kg/m )
1500 to 2500
 If normal crushed stone is used (2320 kg/m3)
E = 4700 fc
c

 For High Strength Concrete(fc > 41 Mpa)

Ec= [3.32 fc + 6895] (wc/2320)1.5
 Dynamic Modulus of Elasticity
 Corresponds to very small instantaneous strains obtained by sonic tests.
 Generally 20% to 40% higher than the Static E.
 Used when structures are being analyzed for dynamic loading (Seismic,
Vibrations etc)
 Poissons Ratio
 Ratio of lateral expansion to longitudinal shortening
 0.11 to 0.21 (ave. 0.16)
 Shrinkage
 Occurs during concrete curing and is heavily dependent on the exposure
type.
 Manifests as cracking of the concrete surface when water in the concrete
evaporates.
 Ways of preventing shrinkage
 Keep the amount of water to a minimum
 Practice proper curing techniques.
 Place concrete in sections
 Use construction joints to control the position of cracks.
 Use dense and non-porous aggregates
 Creep
 Long term deformation under sustained loads
 Usually occurs on Long span structures with slender dimensions and
sustained loads.

Material Properties of Reinforcing Steel

 May be in the form of bars (plain or deformed) or welded wire fabric (wire
mesh)
 Steel Grades
 Grade 40 275 Mpa (40000psi)
 Grade 60 414 Mpa (60000psi)
 Follows ASTM A615 standards
 Originates from plain billet steel
 Locally used Bar Sizes
Number Sizing

SI Sizing

10mm

12mm

16mm

20mm

25mm

28mm

10

32mm

11

36mm

END MODULE 1