See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/323868458

Moment-curvature relation of Reinforced Concrete T-beam sections -

Numerical and Experimental studies

Conference Paper · December 2015

DOI: 10.15224/978-1-63248-079-8-50

CITATIONS READS

2 3,723

4 authors:

Swapnil Vilas Joshi Shinto Paul

Indian Institute of Technology Madras Indian Institute of Technology Madras
1 PUBLICATION 2 CITATIONS 3 PUBLICATIONS 28 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Bijily Balakrishanan Devdas Menon

Indian Institute of Technology Tirupati Indian Institute of Technology Madras
15 PUBLICATIONS 12 CITATIONS 91 PUBLICATIONS 721 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Bijily Balakrishanan on 02 August 2018.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 Proc. of the Third Intl. Conf. on Advances in Civil, Structural and Construction Engineering - CSCE 2015
Copyright © Institute of Research Engineers and Doctors, USA .All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-63248-079-8 doi: 10.15224/ 978-1-63248-079-8-50
Moment-curvature relation of Reinforced Concrete
T-beam sections - Numerical and Experimental
studies
Swapnil Joshi, Shinto Paul, Bijily Balakrishnan, Devdas Menon
Abstract— A simple algorithm is proposed to develop a
nonlinear moment-curvature relation for Reinforced Concrete
(RC) T-beam sections using nonlinear material models. The
flange in the beam adds to the complexity of analysis compared
to rectangular beam sections. This algorithm has been
validated by laboratory testing of simply supported flanged
beam specimens, subjected to two-point loading. The load-
deflection data obtained from the experiments is converted to a
moment-curvature relation for the section applying simple
bending theory. The results predicted numerically by the
proposed algorithm are found to be in good agreement with the
experimental data. The algorithm developed can be used to
generate the load-deflection curve of an RC T-beam subject to
any given loading.
Keywords— reinforced concrete, T-beam, moment-
curvature , nonlinear analysis
I. Introduction
Flexural behavior of a reinforced concrete section can be
studied with the knowledge of its moment-curvature
relation. It is an important tool in generating moment field in
II.
a linear or nonlinear analysis as well as in predicting the
complete nonlinear load-deflection behavior of RC flexural
members. This relation is nonlinear mainly due to concrete
cracking and steel yielding, which makes the analysis fairly
complicated. Therefore for simplicity, it is sometimes
idealized as bilinear or trilinear [1]. However to predict the
response more accurately, it becomes necessary to
incorporate nonlinear effects accounting for flexural
cracking that capture the progressive flexural degradation
under incremental loading.
Various models are available in the literature for predicting
the moment-curvature relation of RC sections. Some of
these models are simple but predicts the behavior up to
service loads only. To predict the curvatures and deflections
beyond service loads, Baẑant and Oh [2], Carreira and Chu
[3-4], and Prakhya and Morley [5] proposed nonlinear
stress-strain models. In the present study, how a moment-
curvature relation can be developed for reinforced concrete
T-beam sections is shown. Such sections are commonly
encountered in continuous slab systems supported on beams
as well as in bridge deck systems.
Swapnil Joshi, Graduate student
Shinto Paul, Bijily Balkrishnan, Doctoral Student
Devdas Menon, Professor
Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India
11
A portion of continuous slab integrally connected to the
beam serves as flange and the supporting beam as web. The
flexural capacity of such sections can be enhanced when the
flanges are in compression. The web helps in resisting shear
stresses.
The moment-curvature relation is obtained by carrying out
sectional analysis of RC T-beam section. In this analysis,
different cases are considered depending on the position of
the neutral axis [6]. Testing of three T-beams has been
carried out in the laboratory. These beams are loaded
symmetrically at two points to simulate pure flexure. Load-
deflection data obtained from these tests is used to generate
moment-curvature relation using theory of simple bending.
The results generated by numerical algorithm are validated
with these experimental results. The behavior of the beams
is studied for variation in depth of flange and tensile
reinforcement. The nonlinear sectional analysis for these RC
T-beams is explained in the next section.
Sectional analysis of RC T-beam
Nonlinear sectional analysis of RC T-beam incorporates
material models to account for the material nonlinearities
due to cracking of concrete, yielding of steel and strain
softening. Euler-Bernoulli hypothesis (plane sections normal
to the beam axis before bending remain plane and normal
after bending) is assumed to hold good throughout the
analysis. Also the overall bond slip is assumed to be zero.
A. Material Models
Stress-strain behavior for concrete in uniaxial compression
which takes into account compression strain-softening [7] as
shown in Fig. 1 (a) is implemented in proposed algorithm.
Ecc
c  2
(1)
E     c 
1   c c0  2   c    
  c0
 fc   c0 
where Ec is the short term elastic modulus of concrete in
N/mm2, fc is the peak stress in compression in N/mm2and εc0
is the strain at peak compressive stress and assigned as
2 fc
c0  (2)
Ec
The expression for εc0 is the smallest value which gives a
realistic stress-strain curve [8]. The value of εc0 has an
approximate value of 0.002. For concrete in tension an
idealized bilinear stress-strain curve is used as shown in Fig.
1(b) and tensile stress (ft) is formulated as below.
For t  tp ; ft  Ec t (3)
 Proc. of the Third Intl. Conf. on Advances in Civil, Structural and Construction Engineering - CSCE 2015
Copyright © Institute of Research Engineers and Doctors, USA .All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-63248-079-8 doi: 10.15224/ 978-1-63248-079-8-50

σ σ
σ

fc f't fy Eh
1
f0
Et
Ec Es
Ec 1
1
ε εtf ε ε
εc0 εtp εy

Figure 1(a) Stress-strain curve for concrete in Figure 2 Stress-strain curve for steel with strain-
compression (b) tension hardening

For tp  t  tf ; ft  ft '  Et  t  tp  (4)

B. Generation of moment-curvature
For t  tf ; ft  0 (5)
relationship
where ft and εt is uniaxial stress and strain of concrete in
A more realistic approach that account for the material
tension respectively, εtp is the strain at peak tensile stress, εtf
nonlinearities due to concrete and steel is adopted in the
is the final tensile strain when the tensile stress reduces to
present study. The analysis considers two cases, neutral axis
zero, f ’t is the direct tensile strength in N/mm2 and Et is
inside the flange region, and neutral axis outside flange.
tangent strain-softening modulus and is given by[2]
Nonlinear stress-strain curve for concrete in compression
mentioned above has been adopted in the algorithm. Strain-
70Ec
Et  (6) hardening in steel provides nonlinear behavior due to
57  ft ' yielding of steel. All nonlinearities together make the
where Ec, f ’t and Et are in psi (1 psi =6895 N/m2) analysis more accurate and in turn provides a perfect input
for the nonlinear analysis of the structure.
Direct tensile strength f ’t is taken as [9] Variation of strains and stresses for a typical RC T-beam
section is shown in Fig. 3. Area of reinforcement in tension
ft '  0.34 fc (7)
and compression are Ast and Asc respectively. Strains in the
The expressions for the strain at peak stress (εtp) and for the reinforcement in tension and compression are εst and εsc and
final strain (εtf) when stress reduces to zero can be simply the corresponding stresses are fst and fsc.
derived from the Fig. 1 (b) as The force resultants for the reinforcement in tension (St) and
ft ' in compression (Sc) are given by equation
tp  (8)
St  f st Ast (12)
Ec
ft ' ft ' Sc  f sc Asc (13)
tf   (9)
With the known value of strain at the extreme compression
Ec Et
fiber εcm and the depth of neutral axis kd (d is effective depth
For steel, an idealized bilinear stress-strain curve with strain of the beam), strains at the level of reinforcement (neutral
hardening region, has been proposed by Belarbi and Hsu axial above cover) can be calculated using similar triangles
[10]. This model is adopted for present study as shown in as follows
Fig. 2 and stress in steel (fs) is expressed as
d  kd
For s   y ; f s  Es s (10) st  cm (14)
kd
For s   y ; fs  f0  Ehs (11) kd  d '
sc  cm (15)
kd
where fs is the stress in steel at the strain of εs and, εy is the
yield strain, Es is the elastic modulus of steel in N/mm2 and
A. Neutral axis inside the flange  kd  D  f
Eh is the modulus of steel in the strain-hardening region.
When the neutral axis lies inside the flange, a small portion

bf
εcm fc fc fc fc
d' Df kd εsc
d εDf
D
εst

bw εtm ft ft
(a) (b) (c) (d)
Cross-section Strain Stress Internal forces
s es
Figure 3 Cross-section of T-beam showing variation of strains and stresses for neutral axis inside the flange

12
 Proc. of the Third Intl. Conf. on Advances in Civil, Structural and Construction Engineering - CSCE 2015
Copyright © Institute of Research Engineers and Doctors, USA .All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-63248-079-8 doi: 10.15224/ 978-1-63248-079-8-50

of the flange and the web carries tension along with the
reinforcement. Further we need to consider various cases
depending upon the lines of tensile stress peaks and of the
points where the tensile stress reduces to zero, relative to the
bottom of the flange as shown in Fig. 3.
Various cases depending on the values of εtp and εtf are
considered for the analysis. These are listed below.
a) tm  tp
Fig. 3 (a), (b), (c) and (d) shows the stress variations
for kd  Df . Stress block parameters k3w, k3f, k4w, and k4f,
can be derived by converting the stress-strain curve of
concrete in tension into an equivalent rectangular stress
block. Equations 20-23 shows these stress block parameters.
For tm  tp
tm

b) tp  tm  tf  E  d

c c c
k3w  0 (20)
i) Df  tp ft tm
tm
ii) Df  tp
 E  d
2
c c c
c) tm  tf k4w  1  0
tm
(21)
i) Df  tf tm  Ecc d c
0
ii) tp  Df  tf D f

iii) Df  tf  E  d

c c c
k3 f  0 (22)
where εtm is strain at level of extreme tension fiber of ft tm
concrete section D f
The strain at the level of bottom of flange (εDf) is given by
 E  d
2
c c c
D  kd k4 f  1  0 (23)
Df  cm f (16) D f
kd
Equation (17) shows resultant compressive stress (Cc) in
tm  E  d
0
c c c
concrete which acts at a distance of k2kd from extreme
compression fiber. The resultant stress for web component which acts at a
Cc  k1 fcbf kd (17) distance of k4w (D-kd) from extreme tension fiber is given by
where k1 defines the average compressive stress, bf is the Ctw  k3w ft bw D  kd (24)  
width of flange.
where k3w is the average tensile stress for web portion and bw
Constants k1 and k2 are known as stress block parameters.
is width of the web
These stress block parameters can be simply derived from
The resultant stress for the flange component which acts at a
the stress-strain curve by converting it to an equivalent
distance of k4f (D-kd) from extreme tension fiber is given by
Ctf  k3 f ft bf  bw   D  kd 
rectangular stress block [2] as
cm (25)
  d c c Calculation of kd and moment (M) is as given by equation
k1  0 (18) 26 and 27.
fc cm
k3w ft ww D  k3 f ft  wf  ww  D  fst Ast  f sc Asc
kd  (26)
cm k1 fc wf  k3w ft ww  k3 f ft  wf  ww 
   d
c c c
k2  1  0
cm
(19)

cm  c d c
0

fc fc
d' Df kd εsc Sc
d εDf Cc

εst St
Ct
bw εtm ft ft
(a) (b) (c)

Cross-section Strain Stresses Internal forces

s
Figure 4 Cross-section of T-beam showing variation of strains and stresses for neutral axis outside the flange

13
 Proc. of the Third Intl. Conf. on Advances in Civil, Structural and Construction Engineering - CSCE 2015
Copyright © Institute of Research Engineers and Doctors, USA .All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-63248-079-8 doi: 10.15224/ 978-1-63248-079-8-50

M  Cc  kd  k2kd   Sc  kd  ddt  cm

Ctw  D  kd   k4w  D  kd  (27)

D f
  c c

Ctf  D  kd   k4 f  D  kd  k2 f  1  cm

(36)

St  d  kd  cm   d
D f
c c

B. Neutral axis outside the flange kd  Df   tm

 E  d
c c c
k3  0 (37)
When the neutral axis lies outside the flange, a part of web ft tm
and whole flange will be in compression. Fig. 4 shows the tm

 E  d
variation of stresses when the neutral axis lies outside the 2
flange The cases considered are as shown in Fig. 4 (a), (b), c c c

and (c) and listed below k4  1  0

tm
(38)

tm  Ecc d c
a) tm  tp 0

b) tp  tm  tf

Ccw  k1w fc wwkd (39)
c) tm  tf Ccf  k1 f fc  wf  ww  kd (40)

Strain at the level of bottom of flange is given by Ct  k3 ft ww  D  kd  (41)

kd  Df
Df  cm (28) k3 ft wwD  fst Ast  fsc Asc
kd 
k1w fc ww  k1 f fc  wf  ww   k3 ft ww
kd (42)

The resultant compressive stress is divided into a web

component and a flange component. The resultant stress for M  Ccw  kd  k2wkd 
web component which acts at a distance of k2wkd from Ccf  kd  k2 f kd   Sc  kd  ddt  (43)
extreme compression fiber is given by
Ct  D  kd   k3  D  kd   St  d  kd 
Ccw  k1w fcbf kd (29)
where k1w is the average compressive stress for web portion
and bf is width of the flange
The resultant stress for the flange component which acts at a
distance of k2f kd from extreme tension fiber is given by
Ccf  k1 f fc bf  bw  Df (32) Input geometry and
material properties

Stress block parameters, resultant tensile stresses, and Assume εcm and kd
conditions of force and moment equilibrium for strain at the
level of peak tensile stress (εtp) is greater than or equal to
strain in at the level of extreme tension fiber (εtm) can be Compute strains and
corresponding stresses
given by equations 33-43
For tm  tp Compute resultant forces
and check for equilibrium
cm

  d c c
Calculate kd

k1w  0 (33)
fccm
cm no Modify kd

 c c
k2w  1  0 (34) yes
cm
cm  c d c
Calculate moment and
curvature
0
cm

  d
D f
c c

k1 f  (35) Figure 5 Algorithm showing step by step procedure

fccm to generate moment-curvature relation

14
 Proc. of the Third Intl. Conf. on Advances in Civil, Structural and Construction Engineering - CSCE 2015
Copyright © Institute of Research Engineers and Doctors, USA .All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-63248-079-8 doi: 10.15224/ 978-1-63248-079-8-50

An algorithm has been written in MATLAB to generate the Tensile reinforcement and depth of flange are the two
moment-curvature relation for a reinforced concrete T-beam parameters considered in this experimental study. Specimen
section as shown in Fig. 5 considering all the cases 1S7R10 has lower reinforcement compared to the other two
mentioned above. Finally, curvature is calculated as specimens (1S5R12 and 1S7R12) to study the effect of
cm tensile reinforcement on moment capacity of the beam
 (44) section. Keeping the tensile reinforcement constant,
kd specimens 1S5R12 and 1S7R12 are studied to understand
the influence of depth of flange.
III. Experimental data
B. Generation of moment-curvature
A. Details of the test specimens relation from experimental load-
Experiments conducted at Structural Engineering deflection data
Laboratory, IIT Madras on three simply supported RC T-
beams subjected to symmetric two point loading simulating The deflection profile between the loading points takes
pure bending. Fig. 6 shows the photograph of one of the test shape of an arc of a circle with radius R and a constant drift
specimens. The beams were tested under two point loads. from central line as shown in Fig. 7 in a pure bending
Effective span (l) of the beam is 2750 mm. The load was region. Using theory of simple bending, the curvature can be
applied at a distance of l/4 from both the ends, with the help calculated from the deflection data obtained from the
of hydraulic jack. Deflections were recorded using LVDT experiments as explained below.
(Linear variable displacement transducer) positioned at the Curvature of the beam section given by
midspan as well as the two loads points. The geometrical 1
and material properties of the test specimens are tabulated in
 (45)
R
Table I and Table II. The yield strength of steel is
500N/mm2. The beams were casted using ready mixed From Fig. 7,
concrete and cured for 28 days.
OC '  OD '  OE '  R (46)
TABLE I. GEOMETRIC PROPERTIES OF TEST SPECIMENS where R is radius of the circle.
Using Pythagoras theorem,
Beam. bf (mm) D (mm) Df (mm) bw (mm)
1S5R12 770 174 50 230
OC '2  CD '2  OD '2 (47)
1S7R10 770 194 70 230 OC '  OM  C ' M  R   mid L   R  y (48)
1S7R12 770 194 70 230
Substituting this value in (47) and solving,
2
TABLE II. MATERIAL PROPERTIES OF TEST SPECIMENS
R2  2Ry  y2  l 4  R2 (49)
2 2
Beam. fc (MPa) Ast (mm ) Asc (mm ) 2
1S5R12 25 3Y12 1Y10 y2  l 4
1S7R10 25 2Y10 1Y10 R (50)
1S7R12 25 3Y12 1Y10 2y
From (45), we get
1 2y
  (51)
R y  l2
2
4
y  mid  L (52)
Substituting (52) in (51), curvature for a given cross-section
of a beam from the experimental load-deflection data can be
calculated.
Moment at mid-span of the simply supported beam
(determinate structure) can be calculated as
PL
Figure. 6 Photograph of the experimental setup M (53)
8
P/2 P/2

D C E O
A B
ΔL C’ Δmid ΔL
P/2 D’ E’ P/2
M R R
l/4 l/2 l/4

D’ C’ E’

M y=Δmid-ΔL
PL/8 PL/8

Bending moment diagram Span showing an arc of circle between the load points

Figure 7 Deflection profile and bending moment diagram for the beam

15
 Proc. of the Third Intl. Conf. on Advances in Civil, Structural and Construction Engineering - CSCE 2015
Copyright © Institute of Research Engineers and Doctors, USA .All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-63248-079-8 doi: 10.15224/ 978-1-63248-079-8-50

IV. Validation of the algorithm

35
with the experimental data 30
Moment-curvature curves obtained from the numerical

Moment (kN-m)
25
algorithm are compared with that generated from the
20
experiment. The comparison between the numerical and the
experimental results are presented in Fig. 8 to Fig. 12 15
1S7R12_Experimental
It can be inferred from the comparisons shown in the Fig. 8 10 1S7R12_Numerical
to 12 that, the results generated using the proposed 1S5R12_Experimental
5
numerical algorithm are in good agreement with that 1S5R12_Numerical
obtained from the experiments. Fig. 11 shows that increase 0
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1
in the depth of flange increases the moment capacity of the ϕ (m-1)
section as expected. Similarly, moment capacity is higher
for the higher percentage of steel as seen in Fig.12. Figure 11 Comparision of moment-curvature graphs for
variation in depth of flange
25

35
20
Moment (kN-m)

30
15

Moment (kN-m)
25

10 20

15
5
Experimental 1S7R12_Experimental
10
Numerical 1S7R12_Numerical
0
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 5 1S7R10_Experimental
ϕ (m-1) 1S7R10_Numerical
0
Figure 8 Comparison of numerical and experimental 0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1
ϕ (m-1)
moment-curvature curve for 1S5R12

Figure 12 Comparision of moment-curvature graphs for

20
variation in tensile reinforcement

15
Conclusions
Moment (kN-m)

The numerical algorithm developed is simple and efficient,

10
and predicts the moment-curvature relation quite accurately.
It can also be conveniently invoked as an input in the
numerical analysis, to predict the nonlinear load-deflection
5
Experimental behaviour as well as in studies related to probabilistic
Numerical analysis and optimization, where the nonlinear analysis has
0 to be repeatedly executed.
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1
ϕ (m-1)
Figure 9 Comparison of numerical and experimental The results show that the variables considered in the study
moment-curvature curve for 1S7R10 i.e. depth of flange and tensile reinforcement contributes
significantly to the moment capacity of the section.

35
Acknowledgement
30
Authors acknowledge Structural Engineering Laboratory,
Moment (kN-m)

25
Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Madras for providing
20 facilities to conduct experimental works.
15

10
References
Experimental [1] Shariff, M. N. (2013). Nonlinear analysis of RC beams, frames and
5
Numerical grids, Master of Science thesis, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Indian
0 Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India.
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1
[2] Bazant, P., and Oh, B. (1984). Deformation of progressively cracking
ϕ (m-1)
F reinforced concrete beams, ACI Structural Journal, 81, 268-278.
igure 10 Comparison of numerical and experimental [3] Carreira, D.J., and Chu, K.-H. (1985). Stress-strain relationship for
moment-curvature curve for 1S7R12 plain concrete in compression”, ACI Structural Journal, 82, 797-804.
[4] Carreira, D.J. and Chu, K.-H. (1986). Stress-strain relationship for
reinforced concrete in tension. ACI Journal Proceedings, 83(1), 21-28.

16
 Proc. of the Third Intl. Conf. on Advances in Civil, Structural and Construction Engineering - CSCE 2015
Copyright © Institute of Research Engineers and Doctors, USA .All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-63248-079-8 doi: 10.15224/ 978-1-63248-079-8-50

[5] Prakhya, G.K.V., and Morley, C.T. (1990) Tension-stiffening and

moment-curvature relations of reinforced concrete elements. ACI
Structural Journal, 87, 567-605.
[6] Pillai, S.U., and Menon, D. Reinforced Concrete Design, Third
Edition, Tata McGraw Hill, New Delhi, 2009.
[7] Desayi, P., and Krishnan, S., (1964) Equation for the stress-strain
curve of concrete, ACI Structural Journal, 61, 345-350.
[8] Alwis, W.A.M. (1990) Trilinear moment curvature relationship for
reinforced concrete beams. ACI Structural Journal, 87, 276-283.
[9] ACI Committee 209, “Prediction of Creep, Shrinkage, and
Temperature Effects in Concrete Structures”, ACI 209R-92
(Reapproved 1997), American concrete institute, USA.
[10] Belarbi, A., and Hsu, T.T.C. (1994) Constitutive laws of concrete in
tension and reinforcing bars stiffened by concrete, ACI Structural
Journal, 91, 465-474

17

View publication stats