1. Civil Engineering Materials
Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering
Trinity College Dublin
Dr. Roger P. West and Mr Peter Flynn

2. Section A: Concrete A1 Basic Materials: A2 Fresh Concrete Properties:
A3 Hardened Concrete Properties:
A4 Concrete Mix Design:
A5 Reinforced Concrete:
A6 Pre-stressed Concrete:

3. Reinforced Concrete: What is it? How does it work?
What are the applications?
What is there to be aware of?
What are the alternatives to the conventional systems?

4. Reinforced Concrete

5. What is Reinforced Concrete (RC)? :
Combination of concrete and steel (normally)
Acting compositely
Produces a strong, durable and versatile building material
Features best properties of each material

8. Reinforced Concrete Property Concrete Steel Good Strength in tension
Strength in compression
Strength in shear
Durability
Fire Resistance
Concrete
Poor
Good
Fair
Steel
Good
Good, but slender bars buckle
Corrodes if unprotected
Poor – rapid loss of strength at high T

9. Reinforced Concrete
Concrete tends to fail in brittle manner (suddenly, without warning – not good for structures!!)
Reinforcing steel takes high tensile loads
When it takes a large enough load, it yields and becomes plastic (that is, stretches considerably under little increase in load
Known as a ductile material

10. Reinforced Concrete

11. Reinforced Concrete In summary: Materials are complementary!
Steel provides tensile strength and some shear strength
Concrete provides compressive strength and protects steel to give durability and fire resistance

12. Reinforced Concrete How Does it Work?
Simply supported beam – apply a load
Bottom surface in tension at beam centre
Top surface in compression

13. Reinforced Concrete How Does it Work?
Two span beam – apply a load in each span
Bottom surface in tension at beam centre span
Top surface in compression at beam centre span
Situation reversed at central support – tension top and compression bottom

14. Reinforced Concrete How Does it Work?
Consider failure mechanism of plain concrete
If sufficient load is applied, beam will fail suddenly by cracking at the location of maximum tension

15. Reinforced Concrete How Does it Work?
Construct a composite beam of concrete and reinforcing steel
If steel bars are located near bottom face (where tension is), the beam can take a much higher load before failing
Concrete resists tension on top and steel resists tension at bottom

16. Reinforced Concrete How Does it Work?
Bond:
In order to achieve composite action, steel and concrete must act together to transfer tension in the concrete into the steel
Bonding to round bars using cement paste is one method (“gluing” to surface)
Provide additional bond by having ribs in the bars

17. Reinforced Concrete How Does it Work?
Anchorage:
Bending bars (to an L or U shape) at the end of the span provides better anchorage (longer length over which to transfer tension)
If beam is long, normal to use two reinforcement bars overlapped sufficiently to develop full anchorage – thus they act as one bar.

18. Reinforced Concrete

19. Reinforced Concrete

20. Reinforced Concrete How Does it Work?
Shear:
If such a beam were tested, failure would probably occur due to diagonal cracking near supports (despite presence of ductile steel)
This is known as shear failure – another dangerous form of brittle failure
Need to provide vertical reinforcement to bridge the cracks – these are known as shear links
Have to provide additional longitudinal steel to hold top end of links in place; nominal size bars called “hangers”

21. Reinforced Concrete

22. Reinforced Concrete

23. Reinforced Concrete How Does it Work?
Reinforcement Cages:
Useful to prefabricate stable reinforcement cage and drop into location
Example below is for a continuous beam with two spans
Note additional links near support (biggest shear force)
Significant tensile (longitudinal) steel mid-span and over supports

24. Reinforced Concrete

25. Reinforced Concrete How Does it Work?
Under-reinforced Beams:
Suppose increase load on beam until failure:
If steel weaker than concrete, steel will yield and stretch significantly – ductile failure and plenty of warning (through cracking on the bottom surface)
Preferred design condition because of this warning

26. Reinforced Concrete How Does it Work?
Over-reinforced Beams:
Suppose increase load on beam until failure:
If additional steel is provided to make beam stronger, could lead to concrete becoming the weaker component
Beam then fails suddenly by concrete failure in compression (before steel becomes plastic) – brittle failure
Code rules mitigate against this failure method

27. Reinforced Concrete How Does it Work?
Columns:
Concrete section in compression but also some moment – moment generates tension in part of the section
Reinforcement provided to take the tension but will also be required to take compression
Now links provided to restrain slender compression elements (vertical reinforcement) to prevent buckling. Spacing of links must be such as to prevent this.

28. Reinforced Concrete

29. Reinforced Concrete Applications
Beams
Slabs
Columns
Culverts
Portal frames
Bridge beams
Piled foundations
Roof structures
Cladding
Towers
Silos
Reservoirs and tanks
Sculptures
????

30. Reinforced Concrete Applications
Reinforcement generally in form of bars or mesh
Round bars – Y bars (Yield stress = 250MPa)
Ribbed bars – T bars (Yield stress = 460MPa)
Mesh reinforcement – small diameter bars welded at regular centres, usually to prevent shrinkage cracking
All reinforcement should be covered by CARES certificate to certify quality and standard of reinforcement

31. Reinforced Concrete Applications
Reinforcement drawings specify bar type, size, location and centres/ number off
Bending schedules prepared for each drawing – show fabrication details for bars
These can be input directly into cutting and bending machines to produce required steel
All steel ID tagged before going to site using a bar code

32. Reinforced Concrete Applications
Installation on site carried out by steel fixers
Bars are located according to reinforcement drawing
Cover blocks and spacers used to maintain adequate cover at perimeter of concrete section
Prefabrication used for beams more than slabs

33. Reinforced Concrete

34. Reinforced Concrete

35. Reinforced Concrete

36. Reinforced Concrete Applications
Continuity Reinforcement:
Used typically to permit vertical elements to continue up without casting horizontal elements
Continuity reinforcement is cast in
Can be bent into position after formwork is struck

37. Reinforced Concrete Alternatives to Steel Reinforcement Bars
Steel fibres:
Lengths up to 60mm
Aspect ratio (length : diameter) up to 80
Generally added to concrete truck on site to specified dosing rate
Increase “toughness” of section
Bridge micro-cracks in concrete
Generally used in ground bearing
slabs
Good at resisting shrinkage cracks

38. Reinforced Concrete Variations/Alternatives to Steel Reinforcement Bars
Plastic fibres:
Modify fresh concrete properties
Increase cohesion and reduce bleeding
Reduces plastic shrinkage cracking in ground bearing slabs
Not really an alternative to reinforcement to take tensile forces; can be used in addition

39. Reinforced Concrete Variations/Alternatives to Steel Reinforcement Bars
Stainless Steel Reinforcement:
Used in high chloride areas where carbon steel reinforcement would be subject to corrosion
€€€€!!
Only very specialist uses

40. Reinforced Concrete Variations/Alternatives to Steel Reinforcement Bars
Epoxy Coated Reinforcement:
Potential alternative to stainless steel
Bars need special handling to prevent damage to protective epoxy coating
Not often recommended

41. Reinforced Concrete Variations/Alternatives to Steel Reinforcement Bars
Fibre reinforced plastic (FRP) reinforcement:
Glass fibre reinforcing bar available
Generally has to be manufactured to order
Materials behave elastically with brittle failure – design needs to cater for this
Applications: EMI considerations, cuttable concrete, severe aggressive environments.

42. Reinforced Concrete Variations/Alternatives to Steel Reinforcement Bars
Fibre reinforced plastic (FRP) reinforcement (cont.)
Can also be used as an external strengthening system
Bond carbon fibre/ epoxy plate to concrete on tension face
Can wrap circular columns for compression enhancement

43. Testing new carbon fibre wrappings