Structural Engineering 1

(ENGR2842 and ENGR8862)

Semester 2, 2020
Lecture 9 – Concrete Beam Reinforcement

Dr Aliakbar Gholampour
 Lecture overview
• Revision of sectional analysis
• Rigid plastic analysis for reinforced concrete
– Concrete material assumptions
– γkud
• Under-reinforced vs Over-reinforced vs Balanced sections

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 Revision of Sectional Analysis
• To analyse the strains, stresses, curvature, loads and moment in a
beam’s cross-section we use a sectional analysis:
– small loads = elastic behaviour
– large loads = plastic behaviour, where ultimate condition = rigid plastic analysis
For example: ε σ F

φ M

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 Revision of Sectional Analysis
• Previous week’s content focussed on steel cross-sections
– Steel can resist both compressive and tensile loads

• This week’s content focuses on reinforced concrete

– Now we have 2 materials to consider
– Concrete can only resist very low tensile loads (~ 3-5 MPa)
– We assume concrete resists no tensile load

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 Example 1
350 mm

• The following reinforced concrete

beam has a strain on the top 590 mm
surface of εtop = 5.0 x 10-5 and a 650 mm
depth to neutral axis of dNA = 224
mm. Determine the moment (M)
and curvature (φ).
Ec = 25 GPa
Est = 200 GPa
Ast = 3000 mm2

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 Example 1

***Solution explained by hand***

See lecture video for explanation

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 Concrete material assumptions
• Sectional analyses can be applied to reinforced concrete beams to determine
ultimate loads, however a few extra details need to be considered.
• Concrete is not elastic perfectly plastic, its stress strain profile is parabolic in
shape so a method of incorporating this is required.

ε σ F

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 Concrete material assumptions
• Applying a non-linear stress-strain relationship to a
sectional analysis is difficult
– Difficult to integrate (obtain area under curve)
– Difficult to determine location of centroid
σ F

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 Concrete material assumptions
40

f'c
30
0.85f'c Red line = rectangular
Stress (MPa)

20 stress block for flexural

strength (Australian
Standards)
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γεcu
0
0 0.001 0.002 0.003 0.004
Strain εcu = 0.003

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 Concrete material assumptions
εcu
(0.003) f'c 0.85f'c

γkud γkud/2

dNA = kud F = area of

stress block

Neutral
Axis Strain True stress Equivalent Force
profile profile stress block

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 γkud
d = effective depth (mm)
kud = depth of neutral axis (mm) [kud = dNA]
γkud = depth of rectangular stress block (mm) [γkud = γdNA]

Where  = 1.05 − 0.007 f 'c

limitation 0.67    0.85

So essentially, ku and γ are simply ratios of depth relating to neutral axis and
stress block respectively.

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 Moment capacity
• The analysis method used to determine the moment
capacity of a RC beam depends on the conditions as
the beam fails
– Under-reinforced: Steel yields before concrete crushes
– Over-reinforced: Concrete crushes before steel yields
– Balanced: Steel yields and concrete crushes simultaneously

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 Example 2
150 mm

Under-reinforced section:
250 mm
Determine the Moment (M) and 300 mm
Curvature (φ) at failure for the
following cross-section

Ast = 600 mm2

σyield = 400 MPa
f'c = 30 MPa

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 Example 2

***Solution explained by hand***

See lecture video for explanation

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 Example 3
150 mm

Over-reinforced section:
250 mm
Determine the Moment (M) and 300 mm
Curvature (φ) at failure for the
following cross-section

Ast = 1400 mm2

σyield = 400 MPa
f'c = 30 MPa

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 Example 3

***Solution explained by hand***

See lecture video for explanation

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 Example 4
150 mm

Balanced section:
250 mm
Determine the total area of 300 mm
steel required for this cross-
section to be balanced. Then
determine Moment (M) and
Curvature (φ) at failure Ast = ?
σyield = 400 MPa
f'c = 30 MPa

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 Example 4

***Solution explained by hand***

See lecture video for explanation

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 Defining condition of failure
• Take note that in all cases (Over-reinforced, Under-reinforced
or Balanced) the defining condition of failure is concrete
crushing. The difference is the strain in the steel when the
concrete crushes.

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 Preferred reinforcement
• Under-reinforced sections are preferred in design. These sections
lead to predictable ductile failure as the steel progressively yields.
The flexural cracks are more predominant and allow warning and
monitoring of overloading/failure.
• Over-reinforced sections lead to brittle failure when the concrete
crushes, which is unsafe and unpredictable.

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 Take home message
• 3 types of concrete beam reinforcement
– Under-reinforced
– Over-reinforced
– Balanced
• Under-reinforced is preferred in design as it leads to a more
predictable behaviour (crack monitoring) and ductile failure.

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