CE3100: Structural Engineering Lab

Experiment 1

Behaviour of Under Reinforced Beams

under Flexure
Date of Experiment 18/08/2016

GroupB1
Asish Yadav CE13B030
Karthikeyan D CE13B087
Hemachandra KV - CE13B096
Rahul K.L. - CE12B072

AIM: To study the behaviour of under-reinforced concrete beam under flexure

DETAILS OF THE TEST SPECIMEN:

APPARATUS:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Compression testing machine to apply load.

DEMEC strain gauge to measure strains along the depth of the beam.
Crack-width microscope to measure the crack-width.
Dial-Gauge to measure the deflection of beam at different loads.
Pellets which are placed along the depth for accurate DEMEC
measurements.

THEORY:
Reinforced beams are generally classified into two types - singly reinforced beams
and doubly reinforced beams.
Singly reinforced beams:
Under reinforced: A beam is said to be under reinforced if the tensile steel yields
before the failure of concrete due to compression. Hence, the failure will be
ductile, which is the preferred failure by construction industries.
Over reinforced: A beam is said to be over reinforced if the concrete reaches its
maximum stress before steel yields. Hence, this failure will be brittle, which is not
preferred.
Balanced Section: A section is said to be balanced if both the compression
concrete and the tensile steel reach their respective maximum stresses
simultaneously.
Doubly reinforced beams:
A doubly reinforced beam is one in which steel is provided on both tension and
compression sides.

Assumptions of Flexure theory:

1. Plane sections remain plane after bending, that is, the strains observed
along the depth of the section shall be linear.
2. The tensile forces are resisted by the tension steel only and not by
concrete.
3. Stresses applied are in elastic region.
Cracking Moment:
The Cracking Moment (Mcr) is the moment that when exceeded causes concrete
to begin cracking. This moment is necessary to find out which Moment of Inertia
should be used while calculating deflection.

PROCEDURE:
1. The test for compression was performed on three cubes of dimensions
150mm x 150mm x 150mm according to IS:516 and the compression
strength of the concrete was calculated.
2. The under reinforced RCC beam is placed in the compression testing
machine and a controlled two point load is applied.
3. The deflections of the beam were calculated at three different points using
the dial gauges and the strains were measured using the DEMEC gauge
along varying depths of the beam.
4. Starting from 0 kg, the axial load on the column was gradually increases by
250 kg. For every increase all the measurements were taken.
5. When cracks appeared on the column, for a particular crack the crack width
was measured for varying loads.
6. The process was continued till the beam failed completely.

OBSERVATIONS:
Concrete cube testing:
Weight
(Kg)

Cross-sectional Area
(mm^2)
8.2
8.2
8.2

Failure load
(ton)
22500
22500
22500

Compressive strength
(Mpa)
51
22.236
52
22.672
50
21.8

DEMEC Reading
Load
(Kg)
0
250
500
750
1000
1250
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
4000

1
20.22
20.21
20.29
20.4
20.41
20.5
20.59
20.81
20.98
21.09
21.21
21.44

DEMEC gauge reading (cm)

2
3
4
18.98
20.3
18.68
18.97
20.25
18.71
19
20.26
20.61
19.02
20.16
18.34
19.02
20.15
18.3
19
19.92
17.96
18.91
19.68
17.47
18.84
19.24
16.65
18.67
18.78
15.77
18.65
18.62
15.46
18.56
18.42
14.9
18.48
18.13
14.35

5
18.17
18.12
18.05
19.7
19.67
19.02
16.45
15.13
14.1
13.7
12.96
12.18

Dial Gauge Reading:

CRACK
LOAD(tonnes)
WIDTH(mm)
0
0.25
0.5
0.75
1
1.25
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5

0
0
0
0
0
0
0.125
0.175
0.225
0.225
0.3

1
Main
7
7
7
8
8
8
9
9
10
11
12

Raw Dial Gauge Reading(mm)

2
Vern
Main
Vern
Main
82
6
75
92
6
88
99
6
91
6
7
2
62
7
41
82
7
82
39
8
41
61
9
5
98
10
66
64
11
38
76
12
64

3
Vern
1
1
1
1
2
2
2
3
4
3
6

36
76
78
91
21
62
72
58
82
66
81

Strain (10^-6)
Load
(Kg)
0
250
500
750
1000
1250
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
4000

1
0.0000
0.4946
-3.4619
-8.9021
-9.3966
-13.8477
-18.2987
-29.1790
-37.5865
-43.0267
-48.9614
-60.3363

Strain (*10^-3)
2
3
4
0.0000
0.0000
0.0000
0.5269
2.4631
-1.6060
-1.0537
1.9704 -103.3191
-2.1075
6.8966
18.2013
-2.1075
7.3892
20.3426
-1.0537 18.7192
38.5439
3.6881 30.5419
64.7752
7.3762 52.2167
108.6724
16.3330 74.8768
155.7816
17.3867 82.7586
172.3769
22.1286 92.6108
202.3555
26.3435 106.8966
231.7987

5
0.0000
2.7518
6.6043
-84.2047
-82.5537
-46.7804
94.6615
167.3088
223.9956
246.0099
286.7364
329.6643

Deflection
LOAD(tonnes)
0
0.25
0.5
0.75
1
1.25
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5

Theoretical deflection(mm)
1
2
3
0
1.27E-05
2.55E-05
3.82E-05
5.09E-05
6.36E-05
7.64E-05
0.000102
0.000127
0.000153
0.000178

0
1.46E-05
2.93E-05
4.39E-05
5.85E-05
7.32E-05
8.78E-05
0.000117
0.000146
0.000176
0.000205

0
1.27E-05
2.55E-05
3.82E-05
5.09E-05
6.36E-05
7.64E-05
0.000102
0.000127
0.000153
0.000178

Deflection (mm)
1
2
0
0.01
0.017
0.024
0.08
0.1
0.157
0.179
0.316
0.382
0.494

0
0.013
0.016
0.027
0.066
0.107
0.166
0.23
0.391
0.463
0.589

3
0
0.04
0.042
0.055
0.085
0.126
0.136
0.222
0.346
0.23
0.545

Moment and curvature

LOAD(tonnes)

Moment
(kNm)

Curvature

0
0.25
0.5
0.75
1
1.25
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4

0.000
0.736
1.472
2.207
2.943
3.679
4.415
5.886
7.358
8.829
10.301
11.772

0.0000E+00
7.9386E-06
-2.7378E-04
3.0105E-04
3.2905E-04
5.8983E-04
9.5669E-04
1.6476E-03
2.2087E-03
2.4435E-03
2.8387E-03
3.2849E-03

Depth of neutral axis

(mm)
0
-16.650
27.489
67.713
67.872
89.906
63.341
62.807
60.755
61.076
60.905
61.378

Graphs
400.0000

Strain vs Depth

Strain

350.0000

0 Kg
250 Kg

300.0000

500 Kg

250.0000

750 Kg

200.0000

1000 Kg

150.0000

1250 Kg

100.0000

1500 Kg

50.0000

2000 Kg

0.0000

2500 Kg

-50.0000

0.05

0.1

0.2

3000 Kg
3500 Kg

-100.0000
-150.0000

0.15

4000 Kg
Depth (m)

0.7

Deflection vs Load

Deflectiopn (mm)

0.6
0.5

0.4

Dial Gauge 1

0.3

Dial Gauge 2

0.2

Dial Gauge 3

0.1
0
0

0.004

2
Load (tonnes)

Curvature vs Moment

0.003

Curvature (/mm)

0.003
0.002
0.002

Curvature (/mm)

0.001
0.001
0.000
0.000
-0.001

Depth of Neutral axis (mm)

100

5.000

10.000

15.000

Moment (kNm)

Depth of neutral axis vs Moment

80
60
40
Neutral axis

20
0
0.000
-20
-40

5.000

10.000

Moment (kNm)

15.000

Crack width vs Load

0.35

Crack width (mm)

0.3
0.25
0.2
0.15

Crack width

0.1

0.05
0
-0.05

2
Load (tonnes)

Calculations:

Mean strength of the concrete cube = 22.236 MPa

Cranking moment =
Theoretical

= 0.12*0.15*.2*.2*22.236^(0.5)
= 3.395 kNm
Ultimate moment of resistance
Theoretical

Xu
= 217.92 mm
MuR = 11.83 kNm
Observed cracking moment at 1.5 tonnes load
Mcr
= 1.5*1000*9.81*0.5*0.6
= 4.414 kNm
Observed ultimate moment of resistance at 4.6 tonnes load
MuR = 4.6*1000*9.81*0.5*0.6
= 13.537 kNm

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

1. Ultimate load of the under reinforced concrete beam is 4.6 tons.
2. High deflections were observed in the beam before it failed. This indicates that the
failure observed was ductile because we clearly got an indication of i.e., the steel
yielded before crushing of concrete like in the case of under reinforced beam.
3. We know that, as the load is applied the neutral axis depth from top decreases and this
is also observed from the graph (Moment vs depth of NA). This is because the
compression in concrete at top should be equal to the tension at the bottom.
4. Experimental deflections observed were deviating with some error in the dial gauges.
The readings in dial gauge 2 were less than those of gauges 1 and 3 for lower loads as
observed in the graph
5. Cracks were observed on the beam when the load was 1500kg and the crack-width
increased continuously with the load. The experimental values were higher than
theoretical values, as the concrete used in the beam may have higher strength than the
concrete used in the cubes tested
6. Cracks were first observed at the bottom and propagated towards the top with increase
in load. This implies that the cracks were due to flexure.
7. The pointer in dial gauges started revolving continuously when load applied was 3500
kg, indicating that the steel started yielding
8. The deviation of experimental values from the theoretical values might be due to the
non-uniformity of the concrete (like dimension and composition of beam)