- The coefficents of thermal expansion for steel and concrete are of the order of

10x10^-6 per oC and 7 to 12x10^-6 per oC respectively. These values are

sufficiently close that problems with bond seldom arise from differential expansion
between the two materials over normal temperature ranges. The composite action of
this material in structural elements is attributed to the bond between concrete and
steel reinforcement which ensures strain compatibility so that the external loads
on the structural elements is shared by steel and concrete without disruption of
the composite material.

- The reinforcing steel imparts ductility to concrete which is a brittle material

and this property is essential in structural elements to prevent explosive
failures.

- The amenability of concrete to be cast in various shapes and with attractive

surface charateristics is a salient feature for preference of this material by
architects and engineers in comparison with other materials.

- Reinforced concrete is a structural material with desirable properties like,

mould ability, strength, elasticity, durability and impermeability, good resistance
to static, fatigue and dynamic loads.

- At present, Ordinary Portland cement of various strengths designated as C-33, C-

43, and C-53 are available for use in different type of structures.

- Significant developments during the early part of 20th century resulted in

improved quality of concrete and steel. Cement was mass-produced with quality
control and improved methods of proportioning concrete mixes resulted in concrete
of desired compressive strength ranging from 15 N/mm2 to 60 N/mm2.

- Phenomenal developments in the field of concrete technology has paved the way for
production of high strength, ultra high strength , high performance and Nano
concretes having a compressive strength in the range of 120 to 200 N/mm2.

- The first major application of reinforced concrete was in bridges mainly due to
the economy in comparison with steel bridges. The elastic method of design was
firmly established and widely used during this period, The rebuilding of bridges
and buildings during the post war periods resulted in establishing reinforced
concrete as an economical structural material for use in different types of
structures.

- The inadequacy of the elastic or working load design in predicting the ultimate
loads of a structure paved the way for the ultimate load theories and design based
on ultimate loads computed by applying load factors to the working loads.

- Various Investigators developed the ultimate load design based on different types
of stress blocks. Reinforced concrete structures designed solely on the basis of
ultimate load theory resulted in slender structural elements and their
serviceability characteristics (deflections and cracks) under working loads were
not within the codified acceptable limits.

- The ultimate load method of design ensures the safety of the structures against
the collapse limit state only and as such does not give any information about the
behaviour of the structure at service loads and the range between service and
collapse loads. The inadequacy of the ultimate load method in not ensuring the
serviceability of the structure resulted in the development of Limit State design.

- The deficiencies in elastic and ultimate load design resulted in the evolution of
limit state design philosophy, first incorporated in the Russian code in 1955.
- Basically, limit state design is a method of designing structures based on a
statistical concept of safety and the associated statistical probability of
failure.

- Limit state design is based on the concept of probability and comprises the
application of the method of statistics to the variations that occur in practice in
the loads acting on the structure and the strength of the materials.

- The Limit state design overcomes the inadequacies of the working stress and
ultimate load methods and ensures the safety of the structure against excessive
deflections and cracking under service loads and also provides for desirable load
factor against failure. Hence, the British Code, American Code, Australian Code,
German Code, Canadian Code and the Indian Standard code have adopted the limit
state design concepts.

- The Philosophy of structural design incorporated in the various national and

international codes specifies that any design should comply with the following
essential requirements.
1. Structures designed should satisfy the criterion of desirable ultimate
strength, in flexure, shear, compression, tension and torsion developed under a
given system of loads and their combinations. In addition, the stresses developed
in the structure under the given system of loads should be within the safe
permissible limits under service loads.

2. The