CE 4350 Reinforced Concrete Design

Introduction
Reinforced concrete (steel+concrete) is one of the most common construction systems
worldwide for buildings, bridges, foundations, retaining walls, and other structures.

This is due to a number of factors:

• Generally locally available (rebar+cement+sand+aggregate+water)
• Onsite fabrication from standard pieces/materials using simple procedures
• Steel reinforcement in standard sizes that can be cut, bent – no complex
welding involved
• Formwork can be easily configured to produce a variety of shapes
• Exterior walls and spandrel beams may result in systems that don’t need
architectural cladding
• Durable: used in institutional structures, bridges, and underground
• Can be corrosion resistant; decay-resistant; and fire-resistant

Some problems to overcome:

• Heavy (150 pcf) → short spans
• Low tension strength → need steel where tension occurs
• Relatively low compression strain at failure – must design to avoid this, or
else must confine by steel to increase strain capacity
• Hard to remodel

Normal weight concrete (NWC): 145 pcf

Light weight concrete (LWC): 65-120 pcf
Steel: 490 pcf
Reinforced concrete (RC): 150 pcf

Kai Li, EIT, LEED GA, Ph.D. Candidate

Review of Basic Reinforced Concrete (RC) Design Approach
Strength Design Method:
Design is based on comparison of the following two quantities:
1) Design moment (Mu), shear (Vu) and/or axial load (Pu) determined from structural analysis
of upper-bound estimate of loads.
These loads typically include the effects of own weight of the component or structure (dead
load) and other loads externally applied on the structure (live, earthquake, wind loads etc.).
2) Design moment strength (Mn), shear (Vn) and/or axial load (Pn) determined from
lower-bound estimate of resistance based on material properties and dimensions of the
component.

DEMAND ≤ CAPACITY
strength needed ≤ strength provided
e.g., credit card: demand = spending ≤ capacity = limit on the card

∑γiMi ≤ Rn

load factor nominal resistance

load effect strength reduction factor
Mu ≤  Mn
Vu ≤ Vn
Pu ≤  Pn
PL wD
Example:

l/2

γiMi = 1.2MD + 1.6ML ≤ Mn

wD
. .
Kai Li, EIT, LEED GA, Ph.D. Candidate