CE 581

Reinforced Concrete Structures

Lecture 2: Material Behavior
 Introduction
• Concrete
- Composition
- Uniaxial Tension
- Uniaxial Comprresion
- Multiaxial Loading
- Long Term Behavior
- Modeling
• Mild Steel Reinforcement
- Tension/Compression Response
- Cyclic response
- Corrosion
 Why Study Material Response?
Modeling: Design, Forensic, Assessment
• Design: Understand ductility, detailing concepts
• Forensic: Understand sources of distress (cracking,
damage, repair)
• Assessment: Load carrying and deformation capacity
• Inspection: Quality control
 Concrete Material
• Ingredients:
Portland Cement+Water+Aggregates
Portland Cement + Water → Paste
(Paste is composed of calcium silicate hydrates that provides binding
are produced as a result of chemical reaction)
• Minimum water content: ~ 0.3
• Superplasticizers increase workability
• Natural pozzolans, flyash, blast furnace slab etc. can
be used to partially replace cement
Ingredients of Concrete
 Concrete at Different Scales

Concrete is made up of two distinctly different constituents, the cement paste and the
aggregate. The cement particles in fresh concrete, which are suspended in the mix water,
cannot pack together as efficiently when they are in the close vicinity of a much larger
solid object, such an aggregate particle. This is actually a general phenomenon associated
with particle packing, known as the "wall effect." In the case of concrete, this is effect is
magnified by the shearing stresses exerted on the cement paste by the aggregate particles
during mixing, which tend to cause the water to separate from the cement particles. The
result is a narrow region around the aggregate particles with fewer cement particles, and
thus more water. This is called the interfacial transition zone, abbreviated ITZ.
 Concrete at Mesoscale

The ITZ is a region with a higher w/c, and thus a higher porosity, than the bulk paste. It is not
uniform, but varies from point to point along each aggregate particle. Because of the larger pores,
the ITZ is characterized by the presence of larger crystals, particularly of calcium hydroxide, than are
found in the bulk paste. The ITZ tends to be larger around larger aggregate particles. The interfacial
transition zone (ITZ). The ITZ has important effects on the properties of concrete, because it tends to
act as the "weak link in the chain" when compared to the bulk cement paste and the aggregate
particles. Thus the lower strength and stiffness of the ITZ translate directly into lower strength and
stiffness values for concrete as compared to cement paste. The total volume of ITZ in a concrete
increases with the total amount of large aggregate and with the average size of the aggregate,
which explains why the strength is observed to decrease with both of these parameters.
 Uniaxial Tension Behavior
Behavior is almost linear up to
cracking. Softening occurs with
initiation of cracking. It is possible
Stress

to obtain with stiff test machines.

Strain

Reason of the softening region is

jamming of rough crack surfaces,
hence some tensile strength is
transferred even at large strains.
Cracking in Tension
Direct Tension Test: Difficulties
Measuring Length in Tension Tests
If the measuring length to
specimen length ratio is kept
constant, size effect will be
observed!!

How is this important in finite

element analysis?
 Indirect Tension Tests
Modulus of Rupture Test Type of Test Value
Direct Tension 0.35(fck)0.5
Split Cylinder 0.5(fck)0.5
Modulus of 0.65(fck)0.5
Rupture

My
f ctf  • We generally neglect
I tensile strength of concrete
in calculations (bending
not shear).
Split Cylinder Test • This does not significantly
influence strength or
deformation capacity
estimations.
 Concrete Tensile Strength

Direct tensile strength (fct is in MPa) 0.35 f c

Split tensile strength (fcts is in MPa) 0.50 fc
Flexural tensile strength (fctf is in MPa) 0.7 f c
Flexural tensile strength (fctf is in MPa) 0.64 fc
(Single load at mid span)
Cyclic Tension Behavior
Response can be assumed elastic
for unloading up to cracking.
Beyond ultimate, tension behavior
exhibits a hysteretic response.
Modeling is usually assumed to be
origin oriented.
Accuracy is important for plain
concrete behavior.
Cyclic Behavior
Uniaxial Compression Behavior: Elastic Response

Concrete
 Modulus of Elasticity
Shear strength of concrete is higher than its tensile strength
fs = 35 percent to 80 percent of fc
 Modulus of Elasticity

Pauw Ecj  w1.5 (1362) f cj

ACI E cj  4750 f cj

EUROCODE 2 E cj  9500(f cj  8)1/ 3

TS500 E cj  3250 f cj  14000

Coefficient of Thermal Expansion (ACI-209)
Poisson Ratio

Tests made revealed that the

Poisson's ratio changes
significantly with the
load level.

At stress levels of sc/fc=0.3-0.7,

the Poisson’s ratio is approximately
0.15-0.25. In and TS-500, it is
specified as 0.20
 Shear Modulus
Shear modulus also varies as a function of the load level. Various values have been
recommended based on Ec and c values found experimentally using the following
elasticity equation.

Ec
Gc 
21   c 
In 1967, an extensive research program was carried at METU to study the
relationship between Gc and Ec. It was intended to determine Gc from two
independent tests in which the same concrete would be used.

G c  0.4E c
In TS-500, above is recommended to compute the shear modulus.
 Bearing Strength

In case of point loads

f cl  f c R  2f c

In case of strip loads

fc b
f cl   1.5f c
1.5 b

The ratio of total area to the loaded area is R.

b and b' are the widths of the member and the loaded area, respectively
 Uniaxial Compression Behavior: Why
Nonlinear?

Nonlinearity is associated with cracking!!

Cracks tend to bridge around aggregates (NSC)

In a stack of balls splitting Inclined cracks ocur due to random aggregate distribution,
forces develop !! which places importance to shear along cracks.
Local failure occurs in the weak ITZ.
Uniaxial Compression
Uniaxial Compression Behavior: Lateral Response
Concrete with Different Strengths

As strength increases;

-Strain at peak strength increases

-Ductility decreases

- Nonlinearity in the ascending

region decreases
 Uniaxial Compression
Factors affecting strength
 Uniaxial Compression
Factors affecting strength
 Uniaxial Compression
Factors affecting strength
 Uniaxial Compression
Factors affecting strength
 Uniaxial Compression
Factors affecting strength
 Uniaxial Compression
Factors affecting strength
 Uniaxial Compression
Factors affecting strength
 Uniaxial Compression
Factors affecting strength
High Temperature Response
 Cyclic Response
• Unloading slope prior to peak strength is almost linear,
• Significant strength and stiffness degredation after peak strength
 A note on descending region
• In the experiments descending region can be obtained only with a displacement
controlled mode of loading
Load controlled: Impose load increments (Gravity)
Displ. Controlled: Impose disp. İncrements (Eq.)
• Experiments show that descending (softening) region is size dependent, hence it can not
be treated as purely material behavior.
• Size dependency is due to localization of damage and unloading of undamaged zone.
 Stress
L = 125 mm
L = 250 mm

Strain

For design purposes we neglect

this effect and use simple
curves and inject safety factors!
Stress

L = 125 mm
For analysis purposes we perform L = 250 mm
regularization based on length of
specimen,
(Area under σ-ε)*Specimen Length
= Fracture Energy (Constant) Displacement
 Reason of Size Effect
• Damage oocurs along a
localized length Ld
• Rest of the specimen
unloads
• Longer the unloading
zone steeper the drop
• Compressive fracture
energy can also be
assumed as a material
property
 A note on descending region
For design purposes we neglect
this effect and use simple
curves and inject safety factors!

For analysis purposes we perform

regularization based on length of
specimen,
(Area under σ-ε)*Specimen Length
Stress

= Fracture Energy (Constant) L = 125 mm

L = 250 mm

Displacement
Biaxial Loading
 Biaxial Loading: Volumetric

Lateral compression delays unstable

crack growth.
Biaxial Loading
Equa-biaxial strength=1.16 fc
Highest value of biaxial str=1.27fc
 Triaxial Compression Behavior
• Early tests by Richart (1928) show that lateral
compression increases the strength and ductility
of concrete cylinders in compression.
• Lateral pressure delays microcracking increases
cohesive resistance and controls volume
expansion (dilation).
• In practice we provide passive lateral pressure
using ties. Presence of ties is very important in
seismic detailing so that concrete degredation
can be avoided under cyclic loading.
Triaxial Compression Behavior
 Failure under triaxial compression

Confinement delays splitting cracks

Failure under triaxial compression
 TIME DEPENDENT DEFORMATION OF CONCRETE
The deformations in concrete, under the same load or stress, increase with
time (Why?). They can significantly alter both strength serviecability of
structures.
Major time dependent deformations:
• the creep deformations
• the shrinkage deformations
Shrinkage: Shrinking of concrete due to loss of water, which is usuallly
more than needed for hyration reaction to increase workability.
Creep: Increase in compressive deformations in time due to sustained loads

48
EFFECTS OF SHRINKAGE ON STRUCTURES

A plain concrete member that is not

restrained by other members will shrink but
there will be no stresses in the member due
to shrinkage.
In reinforced concrete members, steel bars
do not shrink as concrete dries out, so its
restraint tends to reduce the shortening of
reinforced concrete member. This means
that after a certain time, the concrete will
have tensile stresses and the steel will be
in compression due to shrinkage.

49
 EFFECTS OF SHRINKAGE ON STRUCTURES

When restraining members (like structural

walls or stiff columns) exist at the end of
the beams, moments, shear and axial
force will be produced in the beam due to
restrained shrinkage deformations.
The axial force in the beam due to
shrinkage will be tension. Because of
restrained shrinkage shear, moment and
axial forces will also be introduced to the
restraining members.
The internal forces induced by restrained
shrinkage will be more critical as the
stiffness of the restraining members Shrinkage Compensating Concrete
increase.

50
 Factors Affecting Shrinkage: Humidity

Lower the humidity, higher the

shrinkage

If RH>94%: swelling takes place

(significant for lightweight concrete)

Complete shrinkage process may

take several years

51
 Factors Affecting Shrinkage: Aggregate Type
• Shrinkage is due to shrinking
of hardenet cement paste.
• Moduli ratio of aggregate to
cement paste is important.
• Aggregates are stiffer
compared to cement paste
and presence of stiffer
aggregates reduce shrinkage.
• As the stiffness ratio of
aggregates to cement paste
(m) decreases shrinkage
increases.

52
 Factors Affecting Shrinkage: Water and W/C Ratio

• Shrinkage increases
almost linearly with
increasing water
content
• Shrinkage increases
with increasing
water/cement ratio,
the effect being moe
pronounced with
lower aggregate
contents.

53
 Factors Affecting Shrinkage: Size

• Increasing size results in

increasing roral porosity.
• Shrinkage increases with
increasing surface area to
volume.
• Shrinkage increases with
increasing specimen size

• Shrinkage strain is
highest at surfaces
• In the case of
restrained members
self-equilibrating
stresses develop.

54
 Other Factors Affecting Shrinkage

• Curing conditions (sealed)

Humidity kept constant
Autogenous shrinkage occurs
under sealed conditions since
hydrated products occupy less
volume than original concrete
volume. Increase in T

• Increase in temperature
results in higher rate of
water loss increasing
shrinkage.
• Admixtures

55
 How to reduce shrinkage

• Reduce cracking tendency (use less water, higher agg. size, avoid
rapid drying)
• Reinforcement (0.18-0.2%) (Dams??)
• Contraction joints

56
 Estimating Shrinkage Deformations in Structures

• Shrinkage deformations are calculated using a proper

shrinkage coefficient “cs”, which is the strain caused by
shrinkage.
• Although shrinkage coefficient is affected by all factors
listed before, it is predominantly influenced by:
1. Curing process of the concrete
2. Relative humidity of the environment, and
3. The equivalent thickness of the member (as a
volume measure).

57
 Equivalent Thickness

The equivalent thickness e is expressed as the ratio of twice cross-

sectional area to the perimeter of the cross-section, which is in
contact with the environment.

2A c
e 
u
where “Ac“ is the cross-sectional area and “u” is the perimeter in
contact with the environment.

58
 Shrinkage coefficients, cs, given in TS500

Dry (relative humidity 50%) Humid (relative humidity 80%)

Curing
e 150 mm e 600 mm e 150 mm e 600 mm

Inadequate 0.0006 0.0005 0.0004 0.0003

Adequate 0.0004 0.0004 0.00025 0.00025

It should be noted that the coefficients given in the table above are to be
used in calculating the long-term shrinkage (at the end of three years).

59
 Inclusion of Shrinkage in Structural Analysis

The structural effects of shrinkage are similar to those of temperature

drop. Therefore, in the structural analysis it is combined with temperature

drop. For example, if there is a possibility of 20°C temperature drop and

shrinkage coefficient is estimated to be 0.0004, in the design these two

will be combined and taken into account as an equivalent temperature

drop. The equivalent temperature is obtained by dividing the shrinkage

coefficient by the coefficient of thermal expansion for concrete, i.e.

T = 20° + 0.0004 / 10-5 = 60°

60
 Estimation of Shrinkage acc. To TS500

The strain due to shrinkage, which develops in an interval of time (t-t0) < 3

years, can be calculated using the following equation.

css1 s2 {s}

Where;

s1 - shrinkage coefficient

s2 – coefficient depending on fictitious equivalent thickness e

s - a coefficient depending on fictitious thickness and time

61
 Estimation of Shrinkage acc. To TS500

The age of concrete is a relative age based on the assumtion

that the surrounding temperature to be always 20C. If
different from 20°C, the effective age entry in the following
table should be calculated using the following equation.

a  T  10 Δt
1
30

Here, “t” is the period under consideration (in days), “a” is

the effective age and “T” is the temperature during the period
t.
62
 s1 - Shrinkage Coefficient

Ambient Relative Shrinkage Coefficient for

Environment Humidity Coefficient s1 Thickness 
Water - +0.00010 30
Very damp 90% -0.00013 5
Normal 70% -0.00032 1.5
Dry 40% -0.00052 1

The fictitious thickness defined previously shall be modified

according to the expression given below.

2Ac
e  λ
u
63
 s2 - Coefficient

Coefficient Fictitious Thickness e (in mm)

50 100 200 400 800 1500
Shrinkage, s2 1.20 1.05 0.90 0.80 0.75 0.70

64
 s - Coefficient
Period
e 5 10 30 2 3 1 2 3
(mm) days days days months months years years years
 50 0.30 0.36 0.55 0.68 0.75 0.90 0.94 0.97
100 0.16 0.22 0.40 0.52 0.60 0.84 0.90 0.93
s 200 0.07 0.10 0.21 0.32 0.40 0.65 0.80 0.87
400 0.02 0.04 0.10 0.18 0.22 0.45 0.60 0.70
800 0 0.01 0.03 0.07 0.10 0.20 0.35 0.45
1500 0 0 0.01 0.02 0.04 0.10 0.18 0.23

65
 Example on Shrinkage
Example 1.2

A two-bay, one-story frame has to be analyzed for shrinkage and a temperature

drop of -30°C. The height of the frame is 4.5 meters and each of the two spans is 20
meters. Beams are 4001200 mm and columns are 400800 mm. The frame is located in
a dry climate (relative humidity 40 percent). Only three faces of the beam are in contact
with this atmosphere. Materials are, C20 and S420.

Member forces at the end of two years due to shrinkage and temperature drop have
to be calculated.

Solution:

For C20, Ec2827,000 MPa

66
 Example on Shrinkage
Ac40012004.8105 mm2
u21200+4002800 mm
From Table 1.8 (dry climate), 1.0 and s1-0.00052 are found.
2Ac 2  4.8  105
e  λ  1.0  343 mm
u 2.8  10 3

From Table 1.9 and 1.10, for e343 mm and for two years c2  0.85 and s0.7.
cs is calculated from Eq. (1.19)
εcs  εs1εs2 βs  0.00052 0.85 0.7  0.00031
This shrinkage strain corresponds to the following temperature drop.
ΔT  εcs /α  0.00031/105  31C
Total temperature drop to be considered in design,
30° + (31°)61°  60°

67
 Example on Shrinkage
The frame is solved for a temperature drop of 60°C and the following internal
forces are found:
Beams:
Axial force396 kN (tension), approximately 0.8MPa
Moment (exterior)671 kN·m (compression on the top)
Moment (interior)335 kN·m (compression on the bottom)
Shear50 kN
Column (exterior):
Axial force50 kN (tension)
Moment671 kN·m (top); Moment1110 kN·m (bottom)
Shear396 kN
As can be seen high internal forces are produced due to shrinkage and temperature
drop. Especially the moments and shear forces imposed on the external column is very
high.

68
 Important Things to Consider
• Beams will be subjected to large axial forces:
Provide additional tension steel and pay extreme
attention to lap splice length.

• Walls are under additional internal forces: Provide

sufficient shear and flexural reinforcement.

• There will be extreme stress concentrations at

wall-slab connections: Take necessary
precautions in these regions.

• Columns
. will experience additional disturbances.

• After casting concrete pay attention to curing. If

you slow down the shrinkage strains there will be
less cracking.

• Use non-shrinking agents in concrete mix.

 Creep Deformations
• Creep is the time dependent deformation of concrete under sustained
loads.
• Recall: The stress-strain response of concrete depends upon the rate of
loading and the time history of the applied loading.
• If the stress is held constant for some length of time, the strain increases,
a phenomenon referred to as creep. If the strain is held constant for
some time length of time stress will decrease – a phenomenon referred
to as relaxation.

70
 Factors Affecting Creep
• Creep is affected by age of concrete, w/c ratio, humidity, the
temperature, level of sustained stress, time.
• The age of concrete when the sustained load is applied - For older
concrete creep is less.
• The water/cement ratio of the mix - As the w/c ratio increases, creep
increases.
• The humidity and the temperature - Creep is less when the humidity
is high.
• The level of sustained stress - At low stress levels (at working
stresses), creep is proportional to stress. However, at higher stress
levels creep increases more rapidly and is not proportional to the
stress.
• Time - The creep rate decreases with time, but creep usually does
have an effect almost for 3 years with a decreasing rate.

71
Creep Deformations
Elastic
recovery

Creep
Creep recovery
deformation

Instantaneous
deformation Permanent
deformation

72
Effect of Creep n Concrete Strength
(Creep Limit)

73
 Order of Creep Deformations

p  2 – 3 i

In deformation calculations, one has to use a reduced

stiffness to include the creep effect. It will be appropriate to
use a reduced modulus of elasticity (1/2 or 1/3 of the
instantaneous value) to compute the time dependent
deformations.

Ec  1/2 to 1/3 of its original value.

74
 Estimation of Long Term Creep Deformations
(TS500)
sco
ce  ce
E c 28

where; sco is the stress in concrete under sustained loading,

Ec28 is the modulus of elasticity of 28 days old concrete and
ce is the creep coefficient (to be taken from tables).

75
 ce -The creep coefficient (TS500)
Dry (relative humidity 50%) Humid (relative humidity 80%)
Age at
Equivalent thickness (mm), e= 2A c /u
Loading
50 150 600 50 150 600

1 day 5.4 4.4 3.6 3.5 3.0 2.6

7 days 3.9 3.2 2.5 2.5 2.1 1.9
28 days 3.2 2.5 2.0 1.9 1.7 1.5
90 days 2.6 2.1 1.6 1.6 1.4 1.2
365 days 2.0 1.6 1.2 1.2 1.0 1.0

76
 Time Dependent Creep Deformation
Estimations (TS500)
σ co
εce  ce
Ec28

where; sco is the stress in concrete under sustained loading,

Ec28 is the modulus of elasticity of 28 days old concrete and
ce is the short term creep coefficient to be found from:

77
 Time Dependent Creep Deformation
Estimations (TS500)

ce  0.4βd   f1 f2 β f

The parameters of the above equation, i.e. d , f1 , f2 and f will be taken from
tables.

78
 f1 - Creep Coefficient

Ambient Relative Creep

Environment Humidity Coefficient f1
Water - 0.8
Very damp 90% 1.0
Normal 70% 2.0
Dry 40% 3.0

79
 f2 - Creep Coefficient

Fictitious Thickness e (in mm)

Coefficient
50 100 200 400 800 1500
Creep, f2 1.85 1.70 1.55 1.40 1.25 1.12

80
 d and f Coefficients

Period
5 10 30 2 3 1 2 3
Coefficient
days days days months months years years years
d 0.35 0.40 0.50 0.60 0.68 0.90 0.97 0.99
 e  50 mm 0.18 0.26 0.44 0.56 0.63 0.82 0.91 0.93
 100 0.18 0.25 0.40 0.53 0.59 0.79 0.88 0.90
  200 0.17 0.24 0.38 0.48 0.53 0.72 0.83 0.85
 400 0.17 0.23 0.34 0.42 0.47 0.65 0.77 0.80
f  800 0.16 0.22 0.30 0.37 0.40 0.55 0.68 0.70
 1500 0.15 0.20 0.26 0.30 0.32 0.45 0.58 0.63

Again, the age of concrete is the relative age, and depends on the
temperature of the surrounding environment.
81
 Reinforcing Steel
• Regions:
- Elastic
- Yielding
- Strain Hardening
- Necking
- Fracture
• Important Points:
- Yield Point (εy=0.001-0.0025)
- Onset of strain hardening (εsh=0.01-0.03)
- Ultimate Strain (εsu=0.1-0.2)
Behavior of Reinforcing Steel under Monotonic Loading

83
Behavior of Reinforcing Steel under Monotonic Loading

Es = 200 000 MPa

84
Behavior of Reinforcing Steel under Repeated and
Reversed Loading

Bauschinger
Effect

Repeated loading - unloading Repeated reverse cyclic loading

86
Modeling the Uniaxial Stress-Strain Curve of Steel
under Monotonic Loading

sy= f y /Es
sp= 0.01
su= 0.10-0.20
fsu = ~1.5f y

Trilinear model
87
 Fatigue Characteristics of
Reinforcement (S-N curves)
Corrosion of Reinforcement
Corrosion of Reinforcement
Corrosion of Reinforcement
Clear Cover Requirements (TS500)