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560.325 CONCRETE STRUCTURES

Lecture Notes by Professor T. Igusa

I. INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1, Sections 1-7.

1. Concrete & Reinforced Concrete

Concrete has high strength when it is in compression. However, it is brittle and will
crack when it is under tension. To increase the tension strength, steel reinforcing
bars are added to the concrete while it is still wet. The concrete hardens around the
reinforcing bars and the steel and concrete acts as one unit.
To make the bond between the concrete and steel stronger, the reinforcing bars have
small deformations which interlock with the concrete. A picture of some types of
reinforcing bars is shown in Figure 2.13 of the text (page 53).
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2. Structural Forms
Reinforced concrete is a versatile construction medium because it can be cast into
many different shapes. The text (pages 3-9) has some illustrative examples.

3. Loads
There are a wide variety of possible loads on a structure which must be considered
in design. The two most basic loads are introduced below:
Dead loads, D. This is a fixed position gravity service load. This includes the weight
of the actual structure itself, as well as anything non-movable that is permenantly
attached to the structure. Therefore, dead load includes the gravity load from floors,
beams, ceilings, roofs, pipes (plumbing), ventilation ducts, and windows. It does not
include furniture because they are movable. Dead loads can be accurately estimated
by adding up the weights of the various parts of the structure.
Live loads, L. This is also a gravity load, but it is different from dead load because it
varies in magnitude and location. Examples include people, furniture, cars, and
stored goods. Live loads cannot be accurately estimated because the load is variable
and unknown. For instance, before the building is built and the tenants have
moved in, the designer does not know how many people and how much or what
kind of furniture will be on any floor of the structure.
Table 1.1 in the text (pages 10-11) lists the minimum uniformly distributed live
loads for various types of structures.

4. Serviceability, Strength & Structural Safety and

5. Design Basis
Concrete design is based on strength design. The basic idea is that the strength of a
concrete member (beam, column, slab, etc.) should be larger than the load:

nominal strength ≥ load

The nominal strength is defined to be the maximum theoretical capacity of the

concrete member before it totally fails (breaks in half, buckles, collapses). To reduce
the possibility of such catostrophic structural failure, factors of safety are used as
follows:

φ × nominal strength ≥ γ × load

φ = the strength reduction factor, which is always ≤ 1

γ = the load factor, which is always ≥ 1

The strength reduction factor, φ, is necessary because the actual strength of a

member may be less than the theoretic strength. This may occur because of flaws in
the concrete or reinforcement.
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The load factor, γ, is necessary because a structure may be accidentally loaded beyond
what the designer had expected. This may occur because the owner of a structure
may accidentaly put excessive furniture or too many people into a room or floor.
In addition to structural failure, the designer must be concerned with serviceability,
which is related to the amount of deflections and cracks in a concrete member.
Deflections and cracks make a structure look bad and cause problems in using the
structure. Since the average load over a long period of time is important in
serviceablility, the load is not multiplied by the load factor. This "unfactored" load
is called the service load.

6. Design Codes and Specifications

The American Concrete Institute (ACI) has published the ACI Building Code
Requirements for Reinforced Concrete, which is usually referred to as the "ACI
Code". This is widely used as a legal set of rules by which r/c buildings are designed.
If a structural designer correctly follows this set of rules, and the building which the
designer has designed has structural problems or failures, then the designer cannot
be blamed.
The design code for highways and highway bridges is similar, and is published by
the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials
(AASHTO). The design codes for railway structures is published by the American
Railway Engineering Association (AREA).

7. Safety Provisions of the ACI Code

The load multiplied by the load factor, γ × load, is called the design load. There are
various load factors, depending on the type of load (e.g., wind, earthquakes, earth
pressure, fluids, impact, settlement, creep, shrinkage, and temperature change
effects). The most common loads are those described in Section 3: the dead (D) and
live (L) loads. The corresponding load factors are:

design load = U = 1.4 D + 1.6 L

The load factors for other types of loads are given in Table 1.2, page 18 in the text.
The strength reduction factor, φ, depends on the type of strength (flexural, axial,
shear, torsion, and bearing) and is given in Table 1.3, page 19 in the text.
As an example, consider moments Md and Ml due to dead and live loads. Then, the
nominal moment capacity of a beam, Mn, must satisfy the following equation:

0.9 Mn ≥ Mu = 1.4 Md + 1.6 Ml

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II. MATERIALS
CHAPTER 3, Sections 1-5, 8-14.

2. Cement
Portland cement (patented in England in 1824) is the most common type of cement
used in concrete construction. It is a fine powder consisting mainly of calcium and
aluminum silicates. It is usually made from limestone and clay or shale, which are
ground, fired, and mixed in specific proportions.
Portland cement is mixed with water to form a soft paste, which gradually stiffens.
It takes 14 days to harden and 28 days to reach the design strength.
The water chemically combines with the cement grains and creates a gel; this
reaction is called hydration. Complete hydration, in which all of the cement grains
are turned into gel, will occur when the water-to-cement ratio is greater than 0.25.
However, more water is required to make the cement paste workable and pourable.
For workability, the water-to-cement ratio must be between 0.40 and 0.60.
The basic problem is that if the water-to-cement ratio is greater than 0.25, then the
excess water will not be consumed in the hydration process. This excess water will
seep out of the water and evaporate, and leave holes, or voids, in the cement. Since
the voids have no strength, they will weaken the cement.
In summary, to make cement strong, the water-to-cement ratio should be as close to
0.25 as possible. However, to make the cement workable, it should be above 0.40.
High-strength cement has been developed by adding admixtures. These admixtures
make the cement workable even with water-to-cement ratios as low as 0.25.
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3. Aggregates
Cement is relatively expensive. Inexpensive and strong fillers are almost always
added to cement, and the mix of cement and filler is called concrete. The fillers can
be sand, gravel, stones, or even boulders, and are called aggregates.
The concrete becomes both cheaper and stronger if the aggregates are densely packed.
This is possible by mixing fine aggregates, such as sand, with several coarse
aggregates, such as gravel of different sizes. Stone concrete uses natural stone
aggregate and weights approximately 145 pounds per cubic foot (pcf).

loose packing with only one dense packing with several

size of coarse aggregate sizes of coarse and fine aggregates

4. Proportioning and Mixing of Concrete

One cubic yard of concrete consists of:
517 lbs. of cement (most expensive)
300 lbs. of water
1270 lbs. of dry sand
1940 lbs. of dry gravel (cheapest)

5. Conveying, Placing, Compacting, and Curing

After concrete is mixed, it must be transported or conveyed carefully to prevent the
mixture from separating (e.g., gravel settling to the bottom). It must be placed into
forms within a certain time limit. After it is placed, it must be compacted to
eliminate air bubbles. Finally, it must be cured, which means that it must be kept
moist and above 40˚F for 7 to 14 days.
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8. Properties in Compression
a. Short-Time Loading
Consider a concrete cylinder loaded under a compression load, as shown below. The
stress is the load divided by the cross-section area, and the strain is the deformation
divided by the total length. The relationship between stress and strain in concrete is
not as simple as that for steel. Furthermore, the maximum stresses are smaller
when the concrete is loaded slowly.
The basic stress-strain parameters are:
fc = concrete compressive stress
f'c = maximum compressive stress (fast loading)
0.85 f'c = maximum compressive stress (slow loading)
εc = concrete compressive strain
εu = maximum compressive strain
Ec = concrete modulus of elasticity

4000

3000

2000

1000

0.001 0.002 0.003

fc = force P
area = A

εc = deformation = ∆L
original length L
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There are three basic types of concrete used in construction:

Normal density, sand-and-stone concrete (usual weight wc = 145 pcf)
Lightweight concrete (wc from 90 to 120 pcf)
High-strength concrete

The stress-strain parameters for these concretes are:

Type of concrete f'c εu

Normal sand-and-stone 3000 to 5000 psi 0.002 to 0.003

Lightweight slightly lower 0.003 to 0.0035
High-strength 12000 psi 0.003

The modulus of elasticity is given by the formula:

Ec = 33 wc1.5 √f'c (2.3)

Ec = 57,000 √f'c for normal sand-and-stone concretes (2.4)

9 Properties in Tension
There are three ways that concrete tension strength is determined:

Test Parameter Relation with f'c Comment

Direct tension f' t 3 to 5 √f'c Least accurate

Split-cylinder fct 6 to 8 √f'c Most accurate
Rupture fr 8 to 12 √f'c Based on elastic beams

direct tension rupture split cylinder

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10 Strength under Combined Stress

In many cases, concrete is under a combination of stresses acting in different
directions. An important example is a beam, where both tension and shear stresses
act at the same time. If the stresses are small, then the concrete can be approximated
by an elastic material and the equations in elementary mechanics of materials
classes can be used. However, if the stresses are large, then the concrete becomes
very non-linear and inelastic, and there are no equations which can accurately
predict the behavior.
The only reliable information is from experiments. The experimental data is
approximated by equations derived from curve-fitting or statistics. These empirical
equations are used in design.

11 Shrinkage and Temperature Effects

a. Shrinkage
The water that is used in hydration will evaporate by capillary action and cause the
concrete to shrink. This shrinkage will cause stresses and eventually cause cracks.
The shrinkage varies from 400x10–6 to 600x10–6 in./in., depending on initial water
content, humidity, temperature, and the aggregate.
b. Effect of Temperature change
The coefficient of thermal expansion is 5.5x10–6 in./in. per ˚F.

12 High-Strength Concrete
To increase the strength of concrete, it is necessary to lower the water-to-cement
ratio as much as possible. By using additives and admixtures, the water-to-cement
ratio can be reduced to the minimum value of 0.25. The resulting properties of the
concrete are as follows:
f'c from 6000 to 12000 psi or higher
Ec is higher than in normal concrete
f' t is larger than in normal concrete
The main disadvantage of high-strength concrete is its cost.

13 Reinforcing Steels for Concrete

As explained in section 1.1, reinforcing steel is needed when the concrete has a
tension load. The concrete and steel work together because they are interlocked by
surface deformations on the steel. Furthermore, the concrete acts as a protector for
the steel because it prevents corrosion and insulates from fire. Finally, the
coefficients of thermal expansion for the two materials are very close: 6.5x10–6
(steel) and 5.5x10–6 (concrete) in./in. per ˚F.
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14 Reinforcing Bars
Reinforcing bars, or rebars, have a round cross section and are available in the
following sizes:
Numbers 3 to 11, 14, and 18
The size number is defined as the diameter in 1/8 inch increments. Thus, a
Number 4 bar is one half inch in diameter.

a. Grades and strengths

The yield stresses fy for various type of reinforcing steel is much higher than the
maximum stresses for concrete:
40,000 psi standard strength 20 years ago
60,000 psi more economical (need less steel) and less congested
80,000 psi maximum strength used in structures

b. Stress-strain curves
Steel is elastic with modulus of elasticity Es = 29,000,000 psi until the stresses reach
the yield stress, fy. Afterwards, the steel does not crack or rupture, but it begins to
stretch or yield. The strain when the steel first begins to yield is the yield strain, εy.
A typical graph of the stress-strain relationship is shown below:

60000

30000

fs = steel stress = force/area

= P/A (compression)
= T/A (tension) 0.002 0.004 0.006

εs = steel strain
= |∆L| / L (tension or compression)