Working Stress Design Method And Its assumptions with Limitations

Working Stress Design Method:

Working Stress Design Method is a method used for the Reinforced Concrete
Design where concrete is assumed as elastic, steel and concrete act together elastically where
the relationship between loads and stresses is linear.

Assumptions of Working Stress Design Method

i. Plane Section before bending will remain plane after bending

ii. Bond between steel and concrete is perfect with in elastic limit of steel
iii. The steel and concrete behaves as linear elastic material
iv. All tensile stresses are taken by reinforcement and none by concrete
v. The stresses in steel and concrete are related by a factor known as “modular ratio”.
vi. The Stress-strain relationship of steel and concrete is a Straight line under working load.

Limitations of working stress method:

i. The assumptions of linear elastic behavior and control of stresses within specially
defined permissible stresses are unrealistic due to several reasons viz., creep, shrinkage
and other long term effects, stress concentration and other secondary effects.
ii. Different types of load acting simultaneously have different degrees of uncertainties.
This cannot be taken into account in the working stress method
iii. The actual factor of safety is not known in this method of design.
Ultimate Stress Design Method and Its assumptions with Limitations:
Ultimate Stress Design Method:
Ultimate Strength Design method is used extensively and almost exclusively in many countries for
structural design practice. The Working Stress Design (WSD) method designs RC sections assuming them
to be within their elastic limits, where stresses are proportional to strains. Large margins or factors of
safety are assumed on material strengths to ensure such behavior.
It is equally, if not more important to predict the ultimate strength of RC sections so that they can be
designed to resist the largest loads anticipated during their design lives.
The materials are not expected to remain within their elastic limits at such high stresses. More realistic
methods of analysis, based on actual inelastic behavior rather than assumed elastic behavior of materials
and on results of extremely extensive experimental research, have been performed to predict the ultimate
strengths .The Ultimate Strength Design (USD) method, derived from such works .

Assumptions of Ultimate Stress Design Method:

Stress in reinforcement varies linearly with strain up to the specified yield strength. The stress remains
constant beyond this point as strains continue increasing. This implies that the strain hardening of steel
is ignored.
Concrete sections are considered to have reached their flexural capacities when they develop 0.003
strain in the extreme compression fiber.
Strains in reinforcement and concrete are directly proportional to the distance from neutral axis. This
implies that the variation of strains across the section is linear, and unknown values can be computed
from the known values of strain through a linear relationship.
Tensile strength of concrete is neglected.
Compressive stress distribution of concrete can be represented by the corresponding stress-strain
relationship of concrete.

Limitations of Ultimate Strength Design Method: