Reinforced

Concrete
Design
Strength Design

Engr. Alexander D. Co
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Reinforced Concrete Design

REFERENCES

Jack C. McCormac and James K. Nelson, Design of Reinforced Concrete 7th Edition, John Wiley & Sons
Inc. 2006

Arthur H. Nilson, David Darwin and Charles W. Dolan, Design of Concrete Structures,Fourteenth Edition
in SI units, Mc Graw Hill, 2010

Leonard Spiegel and George F. Limbrunner, Reinforced Concrete Design 4th Edition, Prentice Hall

Association of Structural Engineers of the Philippines Inc.(ASEP), National Structural Code of the
Philippines, 6th Edition, 2010
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Reinforced Concrete Design

Introduction

PROPERTIES OF REINFORCED CONCRETE

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 Compressive Strength
The compressive strength of concrete ( ′ ) is determined by testing to failure 28 day old 6-6
inches by 12-inches
inches concrete cylinders at a specified rate of loading. For 28 day period the
cylinders are usually kept under water or in a room with constant temperature and 100%
humidity. Although concretes
etes are available with 28-day
28 day ultimate strengths from 2500 psi (17.50
MPa) up to as high as 10,000 to 20,000 psi (70 to 140 MPa),, most of the concretes used fall into
the 3000 to 7000 psi(21 to 49 MPa)
MPa range.

The stress-strain curves of Fig. 1.1 represent the results obtained from compression tests of sets
of 28-day-old
old standard cylinders of vavarying
rying strengths. Careful study of these curves will bring
out several significant points:

a) The curves are roughly straight while the load is increased from zero to about one-third
one
to one-half
half the concrete’s ultimate strength.
b) Of particular importance is the fact that regardless of strengths, all concretes reach their
ultimate strengths at strain of about 0.002.
c) Concrete does not have definite yield strength; rather, the curves run smoothly on to
the point of rupture at strain of from 0.003 to 0.004.. It will be assumed for the purpose
of future calculations in this text that concrete fails at 0.003. The reader should
s not that
this value, which is conservative for normal-strength
normal strength concretes, may not be conservative
for higher-strength
strength concretes in the 8000-psi
8000 and above range.
d) Many tests have clearly shown that stress-strain
stress strain curves of concrete cylinders are almost
identical to those for the compression sides of beam.
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Reinforced Concrete Design

e) It should be further noticed that the weaker grades of concrete are less brittle than the
stronger ones.

 Static Modulus of Elasticity (NSCP 6th ed, page 4-38)

Concrete has no clear-cut modulus of elasticity. It value varies with different concrete strengths,
concrete age, type of loading, and the characteristics and proportions of the cement and
aggregates.

. (0.043)
= ′

= varying from 1500 to 2500 ⁄

′ = Compressive strength of concrete in

Should normal crushed stone or gravel concrete with mass approximately 2320 kg/m3be used

= 4700 ′

Concrete with strength above 6000 psi (42 MPa) are referred to as high strength concretes.
Tests have indicated that the usual ACI equations for when applied to high strength concretes
result in value that are too large. Based on studies at Cornell University, the expression to
follow has been recommended for normal-weight concretes with ′ values greater than 42
MPa and up to 84 MPa and for light weight concretes with ′ greater than 42 MPa and up to
63 MPa.
.
= 3.32 ′ + 6895
2320

 Tensile Strength
The tensile strength of concrete varies from about 8 to 15% of its compressive strength. A major
reason for this small strength is the fact that concrete is filled with fine cracks.

The tensile strength of concrete doesn’t vary in direct proportion to the square root of ′ . This
strength is quite difficult to measure with direct axial tension loads because problems in
gripping test specimens so as to avoid stress concentrations and because of difficulties
aligning the loads. As a result of these problems, two rather indirect tests have been
developed to measure concrete’s tensile strength. These are the modulus of ruptureand
the split-cylinder tests.

The tensile strength of concrete is flexure is quite important when considering beam
cracks and deflections. For these considerations the tensile strength obtained with the
modulus of rupture test have long been used. The modulus of rupture is usually
measured by loading a 6-in x 6-in x 30-in plain rectangular beam with simple supports
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Reinforced Concrete Design

placed 24 in. on center) to failure with equal concentrated loads at its one-third points
as per ASTM C496-96.

6
= = =

The stress determined in this manner is not very accurate because in using the flexure formula
we are assuming the concrete is perfectly elastic, with stresses varying in direct proportion to
distance from the neutral axis. These assumptions are not very good.

Based on hundred of tests, the Code provides a modulus of rupture equal to 0.7 ′ where ′
is in MPa.

The tensile strength of concrete may also be measured with the split-cylinder test.

The cylinder will split in half from end to end when its tensile strength is reached. The tensile
strength at which splitting occurs is referred to as the split-cylinder strength and can be
calculated with the following expression,
2
=
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Reinforced Concrete Design

In which is the maximum compressive force, is the length, and is the diameter of the
cylinder. The tensile strengths obtained are not very accurate.

 SI BAR SIZE

 IDENTIFYING MARKS ON REINFORCING BARS

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