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Flowchart) Concrete Beam with Tension Reinforcement Only

Reinforced Concrete Design (with Flowchart)


Concrete Beam with Tension Reinforcement Only
April 14, 2014 by Andy Lin 7 Comments

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Have you heard of Mu/4d?


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Exam
Thats something I learned at work from one of my bosses who has been a licensed SE

STRUCTURAL
since ENGINEER
1984! Its basically a quick way to check your numbers for concrete exure
HQ I will show you later in the post).
(which

Apparently thats how engineers used to do quick checks theres no reasons why we
cant still use the same technique today.

In this post, you will learn how to design a reinforced concrete beam step-by-step,
with my simple-to-follow owchart. By creating and using the owchart, I was able
to recall the info needed without having to memorize anything which I hope I can
help you do the same.

The Goals
There a few things that I want to help you achieve by the end of the post:

To be able to come up with the required reinforcement without having to re-


read anything.
Recall how to design without memorizing.
A step-by-step procedure that can be easily followed so that you dont miss all
the little ne-prints such as minimum/maximum reinforcement
requirementetc.

Note that the owchart mainly addresses the design of a rectangular beam (not
T-beams) with tension reinforcing only. T-beam design will come in a later post.

Assumptions
I want to point out that since you are taking the SE exam, you most likely have some
idea about all of the concrete properties (brittle) and the design theories
(compression zoneetc.) so I am not going to elaborate too much about them.

If you do need more info though, please let me know I am more than happy to help.

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Another thing I want to mention is that there are many many ways to do the same
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designand
Exam
this is just the one that I am most familiar with.

STRUCTURAL
OK lets get to this! ENGINEER
HQ
Flowchart
The owchart itself is pretty self-explanatory (maybe because I created it?) but I
am going to give you a quick rundown anyway. Please do not hesitate to let me
know if you got any questions.

Click Here to get the Flowchart

What's Given?
Usually, you should already have something to get started with on your design:

Mu: Factored design moment based on the worst case from your load
combinations.
f'c: Speci ed compressive strength. This is typically 3000, 4000, or 5000 psi.
fy: Speci ed yield strength of reinforcement. Usually 60,000 psi for new
buildings and 40,000 psi for older buildings.
b: Width of the beam.
d: Usually the total beam depth cover 1/2 of the rebar diameter. I am going
to assume you know what this is.

What Are We Trying to Determine?


Ultimate goal is of course to nd thereinforcements you need thatmakes the beam
work.

Quick Check

Before you do anything, its a good idea to do this rst. Like I mentioned in the
beginning, its a very quick way to get a rough number for the reinforcement you

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need.
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Exam
I know the units dont make sense but just go with it and test it out. You want to make

STRUCTURAL
sure ENGINEER
the unit for your Muis [kip-ft] and d is [in]. The result will be in [in2].
HQ
Ill show you an example at the end.

Step-by-Step Explanations

# EQUATION ACTION NOTES/EXPLANATION

You are going to calculate


this number a lot. It's used

1 Calculate for determining the


factor which you can see in
the next item.

This basically tabulates the

equation
so
that you don't have to plug

in the numbers. For


example, if you had
calculated ,
Use Appendix A
using the table, you get
2 Table(of theSE Determine
=0.259. Pretty handy.Let
Reference Manual)
me know if you don't have
the table, I can create one

and post it when I get a


chance. You can also solve
the equation using
quadratic formula if

needed.

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3 Calculate This is basically the


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Exam reinforcement ratio you
need. You still need to
STRUCTURAL ENGINEER
HQ verify min/max and etc.

This is the minimum


reinforcement ratio
required. I have tabulated
Calculate (make sure the number for the most
4
your units are in psi) common case: if
and
, then

This will be used in a


5 Calculate
couple of equations later.

This is the maximum

reinforcement ratio which


was derived from the
6 Calculate
requirement of minimum

net tensile strain at


nominal strength.

7 Calculate After comparing these


three numbers, we should

now know how much


reinforcement isneeded
that meets both the
minimum and maximum

requirements.PS: I wrote it
in this format because I am

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used to writing like thisin


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Exam Excel functions which I
assume you might be as
STRUCTURAL ENGINEER
HQ well.

This is for checking to see


if the beam is tension
8 Calculate controlled or
compression controlled.
See below.

If the statement is true,


then we know that the
9 Compare
beam is tension
controlled.

This simply converts the


ratio to an actual number
so that you can decide on

the number of bars and the


10 Calculate size of bars.Note that this
number is based on a
tension controlled section
and has already accounted
for .

11 Calculate This is the size of the


compression block (see

diagram on the very top).


We need this to calculate
the location of neutral axis
and the corresponding

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factor if the section is


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Exam compression controlled.

STRUCTURAL ENGINEER Location of neutral axis


HQ
12 Calculate
from the top ber.

Corresponding factor as
13 Calculate
mentioned earlier.

Revised (increased)
reinforcement
14 Calculate requiredsince the section
is compression controlled
which has lower .

Concrete Beam Design Example


Now let's run through this owchart with an actual example.

Given

(say cover is 1-1/2 and we are using #8 bar: )

Quick Check

This is the quick and dirty way to check the required reinforcement. We'll come back
to verify when we have an actual solution.

Flowchart
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# Flowcharts
Free EQUATION
That Can Help You Pass theRESULTS
SE NOTES/EXPLANATION
Exam
1 0.1875
STRUCTURAL ENGINEER
HQ Use the table, the number
Use Appendix A
listed that is closest to
2 Table(of theSE 0.243
0.1875 is 0.1874 which
Reference Manual)
corresponds to .

3 0.0122

4 0.0033

5 0.85

6 0.0155

7 0.0122

8 0.0136

Yes; therefore tension


9
governs.

10 2.9171 in2 Compare to the quick calc


we did above (2.8125 in2),
we are fairly close!
Therefore, we know that
we didn't make any
computational

errors.Based on this, we
will need 4-No.8 bars (0.79
in2 x 4 = 3.16in2).Note that
if the As you use is

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signi cantly larger than


Free Flowcharts That Can Help You Pass the SE
Exam As.req, you should repeat

steps 7 and 9 to ensure


STRUCTURAL ENGINEER
HQ that you didn't exceed the

maximum reinforcing and


to ensure that tension still
governs.For example:

It is still less than the max


so we are OK.

Tension still governs we


are OK here as well.

Not really necessary if

tension governs but it is


useful later if you want to
11 5.720 in calculate out the actual
capacity.I can
demonstrate how this
works in a future post.

12 6.729 in

Not applicable since


13
tension governs.

14 Not applicable since


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tension governs.
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Exam

STRUCTURAL
And done! ENGINEER
HQ
Now if you change Mu to 300 kip-ft, you can see how it works if compression governs
(I won't demonstrate here).

Final Thoughts
Of course, as I mentioned earlier, just like any other engineering topics, this is not the
only way to design a rectangular concrete beam but it's a fairly straightforward way
to do it.

Note that I didn't cover shear design as it will come in a later post.

Is this helpful? Let me know what you think in the comments below!

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Filed Under: Concrete Design, SE Exam


Tagged With: reinforced concrete

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7 Comments Structural Engineer HQ jolivCL


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Join the discussion

HQ tony 4 months ago

Which code did you use to do your design?


Reply Share

Andy Mod > tony 4 months ago


ACI 318
Reply Share

Tina 2 years ago


Have you provided the table that you mentioned above? I would like to understand the concept of it. Thank
you!
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Andy Mod > Tina 2 years ago


Hi Tina, just enter your email in the sign up box to receive a link to download all the flowcharts.
Reply Share

islam saody civil > Andy 3 months ago


how are u man
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islam saody civil > islam saody civil 3 months ago


i have a question
Reply Share

Dom Boyd 3 years ago


This article has given me all the information I need. I haven't been able to understand reinforcement concrete
until now. I'm a really visual learner, so everything in this article really helped me learn about the correct ways
of reinforcing concrete. The graphics and flowcharts were really helpful. http://www.lenwils.net.au
Reply Share

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