MATERIALS OF REINFORCED CONCRETE

Reinforced concrete is a composite material that consists of concrete and reinforced steel. Within a reinforced concrete beam, the role of concrete is to carry the compressive stresses, while the steel carries the tensile stresses. Exceptions exist for both materials. If the tensile stresses within a beam are very small, they can be carried by concrete as well. Similarly, we may use steel to carry part of the compressive stresses.

Concrete
The mechanical behavior of concrete is commonly expressed by its compressive strength . This is based on standard cylinder tests of 6" in diameter and 12" in height. The tests are commonly carried at 28 days from the day of pouring. The value of is used as an index for most other mechanical properties of concrete. A typical stress-strain behavior of concrete is illustrated in Figure 1. The peak strain is commonly assumed to be , while the ultimate strain is usually accepted in the United States to be . The stress-strain diagram has been modeled using various approaches. Hognestad1 proposed the following simple expression, which has been used extensively:

) ]

Where is the concrete stress, is the concrete strength.

is the concrete strain, and

Figure 1: Stress-Strain relation of Concrete

The modulus of elasticity E is defined as shown in Figure 1. However, it is very common to use empirical relations such as: , where is the unit weight of concrete in , is the concrete strength in units of psi, and the modulus of elasticity calculated in units of psi. is in

is

The same relation can be produced in SI units: concrete is in , the strength of concrete is measured in . For normal weight concrete rewritten as .

, where ( the unit weight of , and the modulus of elasticity

In this case the equation for the modulus of Elasticity can be or .

Hognestad, E. (1951) A study of combined bending and axial load in reinforced concrete members, Bull. Ser. No. 399, Univ. of Illinois, Engrg. Experimenal Station, Champaign, Ill.

Notes by Professor P. D. Kiousis Last Updated on 8/27/2013

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In practice, normal weight reinforced concrete is assumed to weigh The tensile strength can be obtained by an number of experimental procedures: Direct tension tests are in general difficult to perform and very dependent on the gripping processes. Empirical relations have been generated for the tensile strength due to direct tension, e.g. .

Bending tests are more common experimental processes to determine the tensile strength under bending or Modulus of Rupture A concrete beam of length is loaded by a concentrated load at middle of the beam until first tensile failure underneath the point load, which is also the point of collapse of the beam. The largest tensile stress in the beam is at the bottom fiber, at the location of the largest internal bending moment. The maximum moment is at mid-point and is equal to . The maximum stress, based on the equations of mechanics of materials is . Empirically, the modulus of rupture is often determined as .

Split cylinder tests are also common in determining the tensile strength of concrete. A concrete cylinder of diameter is loaded laterally by a load . The cylinder fails by a split in two half cylinders when the stress on the failure plane reaches the tensile strength of concrete: . The result of this test is also modeled by empirical formulas such as .

Notes by Professor P. D. Kiousis Last Updated on 8/27/2013

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Reinforcing Steel
Reinforcing steel is available in bars ranging in diameters from 0.375" to 2.257". These bars are typically referenced by a designation: #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #14, and #18. The bar designation up to #8 indicates the bar diameter in 1/8 of an inch. Thus, #4 has a diameter of 4/8 or 0.5 inches. Designations above #9, have approximately the same meaning. However, this interpretation is no longer exact. All bars come with surface deformations for better interface traction with concrete (Figure 2). Reinforcing steel bars are commonly referred to as rebars.

Figure 2: Deformed reinforcing bars

Reinforcing steel commonly is available as: Grade 40 ( ) Grade 75 (

) Grade 60 ( )

However, only grade 60 is readily available in all sizes. The stress strain relation for rebar steel is demonstrated in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Stress-Strain relation of reinforcing bars

Notes by Professor P. D. Kiousis Last Updated on 8/27/2013

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