Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Bacolor, Pampanga
Name: Cadiang, Jose Albin Jr. R
Subject: Reinforced Concrete Design 1 (WSD)
However, concrete can be reinforced by adding steel rods to the concrete mixture, allowing the
concrete to set solid. The steel rods ensures that reinforced concrete can withstand tensile forces. This
makes reinforced concrete a versatile, composite material. It is used widely in the construction industry.
Reinforced concrete has long steel rods passing through its length, adding great strength to the
final composite material, especially the ability to resist tensile forces. The drawing below shows the
concrete as being transparent. This is so the grid of steel rods can be seen in position.
Reinforced concrete has greater compressive strength as compared to most other materials used
for construction besides good in tension.
It has better resistance to fire than steel and capable of resisting fire for a longer time.
It has long service life with low maintenance cost.
In some types of structures, such as dams, piers and footings, it is the most economical structural
material.
It can be cast to take the shape required, making it widely used in pre-cast structural components.
It yields rigid members with minimum apparent deflection.
Yield strength of steel is about 15 times the compressive strength of structural concrete and well
over 100 times its tensile strength.
By using steel, cross sectional dimensions of structural members can be reduced e.g. in lower floor
columns
Less skilled labor is required for erection of structures as compared to other materials such as
structural steel.
All these criteria make concrete an attractive material for wide range of structural applications such as
buildings, dams, reservoirs, tanks, etc.
Disadvantages of reinforced concrete:
It needs mixing, casting and curing, all of which affect the final strength of concrete.
The cost of the forms used to cast concrete is relatively high.
It has low compressive strength as compared to steel (the ratio is about 1:10 depending on
material) which leads to large sections in columns/beams of multistory buildings Cracks develop in
concrete due to shrinkage and the application of live loads.
3. Water - required for preparation of mortar, mixing of cement concrete and for curing work etc
during construction work. The quality and quantity of water has much effect on the strength of
mortar and cement concrete in construction work.
4. Reinforcing Bar - or rebar, is a common steel bar that is hot rolled and is used widely in the
construction industry, especially for concrete reinforcement. Steel rebar is most commonly used as
a tensioning devise to reinforce concrete and other masonry structures to help hold the concrete in
a compressed state. Concrete is a material that is very strong in compression, but virtually without
strength in tension. To compensate for this imbalance in a concrete slab's behavior, reinforcement
bar is cast into it to carry the tensile loads.