INTRODUCTION TO WSD

Even though almost all of the reinforced concrete structures the reader will encounter
will be designed by the strength design method (Ultimate Strength Design – USD) he or
she should nevertheless be familiar with WSD for several reasons. These include the
following:

1. The design of many highway structures is handled by WSD, although the

AASHTO specifications permit the use of strength design method.
2. Many designers use WSD for proportioning fluid-containing structures (such as
water tanks and various sanitary structures). When these structures are designed
by WSD, stresses are kept at fairly low levels with the result that there is
appreciably less cracking and less consequent leakage.
3. The NSCP method for calculating the moments of inertia to be used for deflection
calculations requires some knowledge of the working-stress procedure.

ASSUMPTIONS MADE FOR WSD

The accurate estimation of the stresses in reinforced concrete members under working
or service-load conditions is very difficult because of the effects of shrinkage, tensile
cracking, creep, and so on. As a result, it is concluded that conditions at failure provide
a better measure of performance than does WSD.

The following assumptions are made for this discussion:

1. A plane section before bending remains a plane section after bending.

2. Stress is proportional to strain; that is, Hooke’s law applies to this
nonhomogeneous material of concrete and steel.
3. The tensile strength of concrete is negligible, and tensile forces are carried
completely by steel reinforcing.
4. The concrete and steel bond together perfectly so that no slip occurs.

Discussions:
These assumptions are fairly good, with an exception for the second one. Stress
is proportional to strain as long as the concrete compression stress is less than about
one-half of its 28-day compressive strength.
With regard to the third assumption, concrete does have a little tensile strength in
bending but it is a very small percentage of its compression strength (approximately 8 to
15%). Thus a plain concrete flexural member would fail in tension well before the
strength of the concrete on the compression side of the beam was utilized. It is
assumed, therefore, under service loads that the concrete has cracked on the tensile
side.

9
INTRODUCTION TO BENDING OF REINFORCED CONCRETE BEAMS

If a relatively long reinforced concrete beam has a load applied to it that is gradually
increased, the beam will go through three distinct stages before collapse occurs. These
are (1) the Uncracked Concrete stage, (2) the Concrete Cracked-Elastic Stresses stage,
and (3) the Ultimate Strength stage.

Uncracked Concrete stage

At small loads when the tensile stresses are less than the modulus of rupture (the
bending tensile stress at which the concrete begins to crack), the entire cross section of
the beam resists bending, with compression on one side and tension on the other.
Figure 1.1 shows the variation of stresses and strains for these small loads.

c in compression fc in compression

s for steel
in tension fs/n

c in tension ft in concrete

Beam Section Strain Diagram Stress Diagram

Figure 1.1 Uncracked Concrete stage

Concrete Cracked – Elastic Stresses stage

As the load is increased after the modulus of rupture of the beam is exceeded, cracks
begin to develop in the bottom of the beam. The moment at which these cracks begin to
form-that is, when the tensile stress in the bottom of the beam equals the modulus of
rupture-is referred to as the cracking moment, Mcr. As the load is further increased,
these cracks quickly spread up to the vicinity of the neutral axis, and then the neutral
axis begins to move upward. The cracks occur at those places along the beam where
the actual moment is greater than the cracking moment, as shown in Figure 1.2 (a).
Now that the bottom has cracked, another stage is present because the concrete
in the cracked zone obviously cannot resist tensile stresses-the steel must do it. This
stage will continue as long as the compression stress in the top fibers is less than about
one-half of the concrete’s 28-day strength and as long as the steel stress is less than its
yield point. The stresses and strains for this range are shown in Figure 1.2(b). In this
stage the compressive stresses vary linearly with distance from the neutral axis or as a
straight line (thus the method is sometimes called “straight-line design” instead of
WSD).
The straight-line stress-strain variation normally occurs in reinforced concrete
beams under normal service-load conditions because at those loads the stresses are
generally less than 0.5fc’. To compute the concrete and steel stresses in this range, the
transformed-area method is used.

10
 w (kN/m)

L (m)

Mcr Mcr

(a)
c fc

s

fs

Beam Section Strain Diagram Stress Diagram

(b)

Figure 1.2 Concrete Cracked – Elastic Stresses range

Ultimate-Strength Stage
As the load is increased further so that the compressive stresses are greater than one-
half of the concrete’s 28-day strength, the tensile cracks move upward, as does the
neutral axis, and the concrete stresses begin to change appreciably from a straight line.
The stress variation is much like that shown in Figure 1.3. (This discussion is continued
in more detail in the subject Reinforced Concrete Design 2-Strength Design Method.)

b 0.85fc’

d N.A.

As
T = Asfy
Beam Section Stress Diagram

Figure 1.3 Ultimate-Strength Stage

11
CRACKING MOMENT

The area of reinforcing as a percentage of the total cross-sectional area of a beam is

quite small (usually 2% or less), and its effect on the beam properties is almost
negligible as long as the beam is uncracked. Therefore the calculation of bending
stresses in such a beam can be based on the gross properties of the beam’s cross
section. The stress in the concrete at any point a distance y from the centroid of the
cross section can be determined from the flexure formula to follow in which M is the
bending moment, which is equal to or less than the cracking moment of the section,
and Ig is the moment of inertia of the cross section.

Mc
f
Ig
Section 409.6.2.3 of the NSCP states that the cracking moment Mcr of a section may be
determined from the expression
fI
Mcr  r g
yt
in which fr is the modulus of rupture of the concrete and y t is the distance from the
centroidal axis of the section to its extreme fiber in tension. The NSCP says that fr may
be taken as 0.7 fc' for normal weight concrete with fc' in MPa. Other values are
provided in the same section of the NSCP for lightweight aggregate concretes.

Example 1.1
(a) Compute the bending stresses in the extreme fibers of the beam of Figure 1.4 for
a bending moment of 34 kN.m. The concrete has an fc' of 27.6 MPa and a
modulus of rupture of fr  0.7 fc'  0.7 27.6  3.68 MPa.
(b) Determine the cracking moment of the section.

Solution: b = 300mm

(a) Bending stresses:

d = 375mm
450mm
bh3 300(450)3
Ig    2278.125x106 mm4 3 – 25mm 
12 12

Mc (34x106 )(225) Figure 1.4 Example 1.1

f  6
 3.358 MPa
Ig 2278.125x10
Since this stress is less than the tensile strength or modulus of
rupture of the concrete of 3.68 MPa, the section is assumed not to
have cracked.

12
 (b) Cracking Moment:

fr Ig
3.68(2278.125x106 )
Mcr   (10) 6
yt 225
Mcr  37.26 kN.m Ans.

ELASTIC STRESSES – CONCRETE CRACKED

When the bending moment is sufficiently large to cause the tensile stress in the extreme
fibers to be greater than the modulus of rupture, it is assumed that all of the concrete on
the tensile side of the beam is cracked and must be neglected in the flexure
calculations.
The cracking moment of a beam is normally quite small compared to the service
load moment. Thus when the service loads are applied, the bottom of the beam cracks.
The cracking of the beam does not necessarily mean that the beam is going to fail. The
reinforcing bars on the tensile side begin to pick up the tension caused by the applied
moment.
On the tensile side of the beam an assumption of perfect bond is made between
the reinforcing bars and the concrete. Thus the strain in the concrete and in the steel
will be equal at equal distances from the neutral axis. But if the strains in the two
materials at a particular point are the same, their stresses cannot be the same since
they have different moduli of elasticity. Thus their stresses are in proportion to the ratio
of their moduli of elasticity. The ratio of the steel modulus to the concrete modulus is
called the modular ratio n:
E
n  steel
E concrete
If the modular ratio for a particular beam is 10, the stress in the steel will be 10
times the stress in the concrete at the same distance from the neutral axis. Another way
of saying this is that when n=10, one square millimeters of steel will carry the same total
force as 10 mm2 of concrete.
For the beam of Figure 1.5 the steel bars are replaced with an equivalent area of
fictitious concrete (nAs), which supposedly can resist tension. This area is referred to as
the transformed area. The resulting revised cross section or transformed section is
handled by the usual methods for elastic homogeneous beams. Also shown in the figure
is a diagram showing the stress variation in the beam. On the tensile side a dotted line
is shown because the diagram is discontinuous. There the concrete is assumed to be
cracked and unable to resist tension. The value shown opposite the steel is the fictitious
f
stress in the concrete if it could carry tension. This value is shown as s because it
n
must be multiplied by n to give the steel stress fs.

13
 b b
fc

d N.A.

As nAs
fs/n

Beam Section Transformed Section Stress Diagram

(Equivalent Concrete
Section)

Figure 1.5 The Transformed Area Method

Steps in finding the beam stresses using the Transformed Area Method

1. Locate the position of the neutral axis. The moment of the compression area
of the beam cross section about the neutral axis must equal the moment of
the tensile area about the neutral axis.
2. Compute the moment of inertia of the transformed section.
3. Compute the stresses in the concrete and the steel using the flexure formula.

Example 1.2
Calculate the bending stresses in the beam shown in Figure 1.6 by using the
transformed area method; n = 9 and M = 95 kN.m.
b = 300mm b = 300mm

x
NA
500mm d = 425mm
425 - x
As = 1940 mm2

nAs = 9(1940) = 17460 mm2

Original Beam Section Transformed Section

Figure 1.6 Example 1.2

Solution:

1. Locate the position of the neutral axis (By taking moments about the neutral
axis),
x
 300x   2   17460  425  x 
 
x 2  116.4x  49470  0
x  171.71 mm

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 2. Compute the moment of inertia,
300(171.71)3
INA   17460(425  171.71)2
3
INA  1626.4x106 mm4

3. Compute the Bending stresses,

Mc c 95(10)6 (171.71)
fc    10.03 MPa
INA 1626.4x106
fs Mc s 95(10)6 (425  171.71)
 ; fs  (9)  133.15 MPa
n INA 1626.4x106

Example 1.3
Determine the resisting moment of the beam of Example 1.2 if the allowable stresses
are fc  9.30 MPa and fs  138 MPa.

Solution:

1. Moment capacity of concrete,

fI 9.30(1624.4x106 )
Mc  c NA  (10 6 )  87.98 kN.m
cc 171.71

2. Moment capacity of steel,

fI 138(1624.4x106 )
Ms  s NA  (10 6 )  98.34 kN.m
nc s 9(425  171.71)

Discussion:
For a given beam the concrete and steel will not usually reach their maximum
allowable stresses at exactly the same bending moments. Such is the case for
this example beam, where the concrete reaches its maximum permissible stress
at 87.98 kN.m while the steel does not reach its maximum value until 98.34 kN.m
is applied. The resisting moment of the section is 87.98 kN.m because if that
value is exceeded, the concrete becomes over-stressed even though the steel is
less than is allowable.

15
Formulas for Review of Rectangular Beams

In this section a set of formulas is developed to analyze a rectangular beam with tensile
steel only. For this discussion reference is made to Figure 1.7, and the analysis is made
by transformed area purely in formula fashion. It will be noted that x is replaced with kd
in the figure.
b b
fc
kd/3
kd C=(1/2)fcbkd
NA
d jd
h
d-kd
As
T=Asfs
nAs fs/n

Original Beam Section Transformed Section Stress Diagram

Figure 1.7 Derivation of Formulas for Rectangular Beams

1. Taking moments about the neutral axis,

 kd 
b(kd)    nA s (d  kd)
 2 
A
2. Letting  = percentage of steel  s ; thus A s  bd :
bd
2 2
bk d
 nbd(d  kd)
2
k 2  2n  2nk
k 2  2nk  2n  0
k  2n  (n)2  n (1)
3. Solving for the value of j,
(From the stress diagram)
kd
jd  d 
3
k
j 1 (2)
3
4. Solving fc and fs,
(Note: the moment of the couple Cjd or Tjd must equal the external
moment M)
Tjd  M Cjd  M
1
A s fs jd  M fcbkdjd  M
2
M 2M
fs  (3) fc  2 (4)
A s jd bd kj

16
Example 1.4
Calculate the bending stresses in the beam shown in Figure 1.8 by using the
investigation formulas developed above. Use n = 9 and M = 95 kN.m.

b = 300mm

Solution:

1. Compute steel ratio  , d = 425mm

A 1940 500mm
 s   0.015216
bd 300(425) As = 1940 mm2
2. Compute k,
Figure 1.8 Example 1.4
k  2n  (n)2  n
k  2(0.015216x9)  (0.015216x9)2  (0.015216x9)
k  0.404

3. Compute j,
k 0.404
j 1 1  0.865
3 3
4. Compute stresses,

M 95x106
fs    133.15 MPa
A s jd 1940(0.865)(425)
2M 2(95x106 )
fc    10.03 MPa
bd2kj 300(425)2 (0.404)(0.865)

17
Practice Problems:

A) Determine the cracking moment for each of the sections below assuming
fc'  20.7 MPa. Assume normal-weight concrete is used.

Problem 1.1 (Ans. Problem 1.2 (Ans.

b = 300mm bf = 750mm

tf = 150mm

d = 425mm 525mm
500mm 300mm

3 – 32mm  3 – 25mm 
75mm

300mm
Problem 1.1 Problem 1.2

B) Assume that the sections have cracked, compute the bending stresses in the
concrete and steel for the beam shown below.

Problem 1.3 (Ans. Problem 1.4 (Ans.

b = 350mm
b = 400mm
Note: n = 9

d = 387.5mm w = 30 kN/m
450mm
450mm
4 – 32mm  600mm
8 – 25mm  L=6m
62.5mm
75mm
b) Beam Loading
Given: 75mm
M = 95 kN.m
n=9 a) Beam Section

Problem 1.3 Problem 1.4

C) Calculation of the moment capacity:

Problem 1.5
Calculate the moment capacity of the beam section in Problem 1.3 if fc = 7.75
MPa, fs = 138 MPa and n = 9. Ans.

Problem 1.6
Calculate the moment capacity of the beam sectoin in Problem 1.4 if fc = 10 MPa,
fs = 207 MPa and n = 9. Ans.

18