Reinforced Concrete Design Prof. Dr.

Ng Chee Khoon

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BASIC CONCEPT

Reinforced concrete the most widely used material for construction all over the world.

Concrete strong in compression and weak in tension cracks due to tensile stresses
sudden failure when first crack forms [Fig. 1.1(b)].

Tensile zone is reinforced with steel bars tensile forces needed for moment equilibrium
after the concrete cracks can be developed in the steel bars [Fig. 1.1(c)].

Fig. 1.1 Plain and reinforced concrete beams

Reinforced concrete structures consist of a series of individual members [Fig. 1.2] that
interact to support the loads placed on the structure.

Chapter 1: Introduction 1
Reinforced Concrete Design Prof. Dr. Ng Chee Khoon

Fig. 1.2 Reinforced concrete building elements

Chapter 1: Introduction 2
Reinforced Concrete Design Prof. Dr. Ng Chee Khoon

1.2 DESIGN CODES

The most commonly used design codes for reinforced concrete are as follows:

Eurocode 2 (2004) published by European Committee for Standardization (CEN

Comit, Europen de Normalisation).

MS EN 1992-1-1:2010 Design of concrete structures - Part 1-1: General rules and rules
for buildings.
MS EN 1992-1-1:2010 (National Annex) Malaysia national annex to Eurocode 2:
design of concrete structures - Part 1-1: General rules and rules for buildings.

ACI 318-14/ACI 318R-14 Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete and
Commentary published by American Concrete Institute.

The complementary documents to Eurocode 2 are as follows:

Eurocode (2002) published by European Committee for Standardization (CEN Comit,

Europen de Normalisation).

MS EN 1990:2010 Basis of structural design.

MS EN 1990:2010 (National Annex) Malaysia national annex to Eurocode basis of
structural design

Eurocode 1 (2002) published by European Committee for Standardization (CEN

Comit, Europen de Normalisation).

MS EN 1991-1-1:2010 Actions on structures - Part 1-1: General actions - Densities,

self-weight, imposed loads for buildings.
MS EN 1991-1-1:2010 (National Annex) Malaysia national annex to Eurocode 1:
Actions on structures - Part 1-1: General actions - densities, self-weight, imposed
loads for buildings.

The old code of practice that may still be in used in Malaysia is as follows:

BS8110 (1985, 1997), Structural Use of Concrete, Part 1, 2 and 3 published by British
Standards Institution. The latest version of BS8110: Part 1 is the 1997 edition.

Part 1: Code of Practice for Design and Construction. Covers material commonly
required for everyday design.
Part 2: Code of Practice for Special Circumstances. Torsion, Deflection and Elastic
Deformation
Part 3: Design Charts for Singly Reinforced Beams, Doubly Reinforced Beams and
Rectangular Columns. Charts for the design of singly reinforced beams, doubly
reinforced beams and rectangular columns.

Chapter 1: Introduction 3
Reinforced Concrete Design Prof. Dr. Ng Chee Khoon

1.3 CONCRETE

Concrete is a composite material composed of aggregate, generally sand and gravel,

chemically bound together by hydrated portland cement. The aggregate generally is graded
in size from sand to gravel, with the maximum gravel size in structural concrete commonly
being 20 mm, although 10 mm or 40 mm aggregate may be used.

1.3.1 Strength of Concrete

The compressive strength of concrete is the most common measure for judging the quality
of concrete.
UK: 28-day cube strength of 150 mm cubes; 100 mm cubes may be used if nominal
maximum aggregate size does not exceed 25 mm. Since the implementation of
Eurocode, cylinder strength of 150 mm diameter 300 mm height cylinders is used
simultaneously.
US: 28-day cylinder strength of 150 mm diameter 300 mm height cylinders.

Generally, the cylinder strength is only 80% of the cube strength, but cylinder strength is a
better measurement if a concrete core strength from an existing structure is to be compared to
the newly batched concrete.

Characteristic strength of concrete is given as:

f ck = f cm 1.64 = f cm 8 (MPa) (1.1)

in which fck = characteristic strength; fcm = mean strength of the batch; and = standard
deviation of which 1.64 is the margin normally taken as 8 MPa.

The characteristic strength is the concrete strength used in the current limit state design. In
design, the characteristic strength of concrete is denoted by fck and Table 1.1 shows the
denotation of concrete strength classes.

Table 1.1 Strength classes for concrete, fck (extracted from Table 3.1 of Eurocode 2)
Concrete strength Characteristic strength, Characteristic strength,
class fck (MPa) fck,cube (MPa)
12 12 15
16 16 20
20 20 25
25 25 30
30 30 37
35 35 45
40 40 50
45 45 55
50 50 60

Chapter 1: Introduction 4
Reinforced Concrete Design Prof. Dr. Ng Chee Khoon

The tensile strength of concrete is measured from indirect tensile tests. Modulus of
rupture or flexural test (MS EN 12390-5:2012 and ASTM C78 or C293) a plain concrete
beam, generally 150 mm 150 mm 750 mm long, is loaded in flexure at the third points of
600 mm span until it fails due to cracking on the tension face. The flexural tensile strength,
fcf, from a modulus of rupture test is calculated using the following equation, assuming the
concrete is linearly elastic:

6M
f cf = (1.2)
bh 2

where M = moment; b = width of specimen; and h = overall depth of specimen.

1.3.2 Stress-Strain Curve for Concrete

A typical curve for concrete is shown in Fig. 1.3.

Fig. 1.3 Stress-strain relationship of concrete

BS8110 makes use of a modified stress-strain curve of concrete as shown in Fig. 1.4.

Chapter 1: Introduction 5
Reinforced Concrete Design Prof. Dr. Ng Chee Khoon

Fig. 1.4 Design stress-strain curve of concrete (Eurocode 2)

cc f ck
with a peak stress of f cd = , the design strength is
C

cc f ck 0.85 f ck
f cd = = = 0.567 f ck (1.3)
C 1.5

in which fck = characteristic compressive strength of concrete; and C = partial safety factor
(will be discussed later) for concrete = 1.5 for flexure and axial load.

This stress is therefore only about 57% of the stress at failure of the concrete cylinder
specimen.

2. STEEL REINFORCEMENT

The actual stress-strain curve of steel is shown in Fig. 1.5.

Stress

fu
fy
fp
fp - proportional limit
fy - yield limit
fu - ultimate limit

Strain
0.001 0.0012 0.016 0.26
Fig. 1.5 Stress-strain curve of steel reinforcement

Chapter 1: Introduction 6
Reinforced Concrete Design Prof. Dr. Ng Chee Khoon

For design purpose, Eurocode 2 idealizes the stress-strain curve for steel reinforcement to that
shown in Fig. 1.6, which applies to both tension and compression. The partial safety factor S
for the ultimate limit state for steel is taken as 1.15. Therefore the design strengths, in both
tension and compression, are

f yk f yk
f yd = = = 0.87 f yk (1.4)
S 1.15

Fig. 1.6 Idealised stress-strain curve of steel reinforcement in design (Eurocode 2)

The mean value of density may be assumed to be 7850 kg/m3 and the design value of the
modulus of elasticity, Es may be assumed to be 200 GPa.

The application rules for design and detailing in Eurocode 2 are valid for a specified yield
strength range, fyk = 400 to 600 MPa. However, the two most commonly used types of steel
are high yield steel and hot rolled mild steel inherited from BS8110. The characteristic yield
strengths of these two types of steel are given in Table 1.2.

Table 1.2 Characteristic strength of steel reinforcement

Reinforcement type Characteristic strength, fyk (MPa)
Hot rolled mild steel 250
High yield steel 460

In this course, a steel strength fyk = 500 MPa is adopted. Hence, the design yield strain,
fyd/Es = 0.0022.

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