College of Engineering

Department of Civil Engineering

CHAPTER 1
Properties of Concrete as a Construction Material
concrete
- a mixture of sand, gravel, crushed rock, or other aggregates held together in a rocklike mass with a paste of
cement and water
reinforced concrete
- a combination of concrete and steel wherein the steel reinforcements provide the tensile strength lacking in the
concrete

Advantages and disadvantages of reinforced concrete as a structural material

Advantages:
1. It has considerable compressive strength per unit cost compared with most other materials.
2. Reinforced concrete has great resistance to the actions of fire and water and, in fact, is the best structural
material available for situations where water is present.
3. Reinforced concrete structures are very rigid.
4. It is a low-maintenance material.
5. As compared with other materials, it has a very long service life.
6. It is usually the only economical material available for footings, floor slabs, basement walls, piers, and similar
applications.
7. A special feature of concrete is its ability to be cast into an extraordinary variety of shapes from simple slabs,
beams, and columns to great arches and shells.
8. In most areas, concrete takes advantage of inexpensive local materials (sand, gravel, and water) and requires
relatively small amounts of cement and reinforcing steel, which may have to be shipped from other parts of the
country.
9. A lower grade of skilled labor is required for erection as compared with other materials such as structural steel.
Disadvantages:
1. Concrete has a very low tensile strength, requiring the use of tensile reinforcing.
2. Forms are required to hold the concrete in place until it hardens sufficiently.
3. The low strength per unit of weight of concrete leads to heavy members.
4. Low strength per unit volume of concrete means members will be relatively large, an important consideration
for tall buildings and long-span structures.
5. The properties of concrete vary widely because of variations in its proportioning and mixing.

Typical stress-strain characteristics of concrete in simple compression

concrete stress-strain curve

CE 145 – Reinforced Concrete Design Marlon T. Acoba, MSCE

 College of Engineering
Department of Civil Engineering

a. The curves are roughly straight while the load is increased from zero to about one-third to one-half the
concrete’s ultimate strength.
b. Beyond this range the behavior of concrete is nonlinear.
c. Of particular importance is the fact that regardless of strengths, all the concretes reach their ultimate strengths
at strains of about 0.002.
d. Concrete does not have a definite yield strength; rather, the curves run smoothly on to the point of rupture at
strains of from 0.003 to 0.004. Assumption: concrete fails at 0.003.
e. Many tests have clearly shown that stress-strain curves of concrete cylinders are almost identical to those for
the compression sides of beams.
f. It should be further noticed that the weaker grades of concrete are less brittle than the stronger ones – that is,
they will take larger strains before breaking.

Mechanical properties of concrete

Modulus of Elasticity
- value varies with different concrete strengths, concrete age, type of loading, and the characteristics and
proportions of the cement and aggregate
a. The initial modulus is the slope of the stress-strain diagram at the origin of the curve.
b. The tangent modulus is the slope of a tangent to the curve at some point along the curve – for instance, at
50% of the ultimate strength of concrete.
c. The slope of a line drawn from the origin to a point on the curve somewhere between 25% and 50% of its
ultimate compressive strength is referred to as secant modulus.
d. The apparent modulus or the long-term modulus, is determined by using the stresses and strains obtained
after the load has been applied for a certain length of time.
 Ec = wc1.5 (0.043) fc' with wc varying from 1500 to 2500 kg m3 and with f c' in N mm2 or MPa
 For normal concrete, wc = 2400 kg m3 , Ec = 4700 fc'
 NSCP 419.2.2

Poisson’s Ratio
- the ratio of lateral expansion to the longitudinal shortening
- values vary from 0.11 for the higher-strength concretes to as high as 0.21 for the weaker-grade concretes

Shrinkage
- after the concrete has been cured and begins to dry, the extra mixing water that was used begins to work its
way out of the concrete to the surface, where it evaporates  as a result, the concrete shrinks and cracks

Creep
- under sustained compressive loads, concrete will continue to deform for long periods of time
- after the initial deformation occurs, the additional deformation is called creep, or plastic flow
1. The longer the concrete cures before loads are applied, the smaller will be the creep.
2. Higher-strength concretes have less creep than do lower-strength concretes stressed at the same values.
3. Creep increases with higher temperatures.
4. The higher the humidity, the smaller will be the free pore water that can escape from the concrete, thus
lesser creep.
5. Concretes with the highest percentage of cement-water paste have the highest creep because the paste, not
the aggregate, does the creeping.
6. The addition of reinforcing to the compression areas of concrete will greatly reduce creep because steel
exhibits very little creep at ordinary stresses.
7. Large concrete members (i.e., those with large volume-to-surface area ratios) will creep proportionately less
than smaller thin members where the free water has smaller distances to travel to escape.

Tensile Strength
- varies from about 8% to 15% of concrete’s compressive strength
- two indirect tests developed to measure concrete’s tensile strength:
1. modulus of rupture test
fr = 0.62 fc' in MPa

CE 145 – Reinforced Concrete Design Marlon T. Acoba, MSCE

 College of Engineering
Department of Civil Engineering

2. split-cylinder test

Shear Strength
- varies from one-third to four-fifths of the ultimate compressive strength

Properties of reinforcing steel; Grades of steel available

reinforcement used for concrete structures:
1. reinforcing bars
a. plain
- not used very often except for wrapping around longitudinal bars, primarily in columns
b. deformed
- have ribbed projections rolled onto their surfaces to provide better bonding between the concrete and
the steel, are used for almost all applications
2. welded wire fabric
- frequently used for reinforcing slabs, pavements, and shells, and places where there is normally not
sufficient room for providing the necessary concrete cover required for regular reinforcing bars

Grades of Reinforcing Steel

- reinforcing bars may be rolled from billet steel, axle steel, or rail steel
 ASTM A615: Deformed and plain billet steel bars. Must be marked with the letter S (for type of steel), are the
most widely used reinforcing bars. Bars are of four minimum yield strength levels: Grade 40 (280 MPa); Grade 60
(420 MPa); Grade 75 (520 MPa); and Grade 80 (550 MPa).
 ASTM A706: Low-alloy deformed and plain bars. Must be marked with the letter W (for type of steel), are to be
used where controlled tensile properties and/or specially controlled chemical composition is required for welding
purposes. They are available in two grades: Grade 60 (420 MPa) and Grade 80 (550 MPa).
 ASTM A996: Deformed rail steel or axle steel bars. They must be marked with the letter R (for type of steel).
 When deformed bars are produced to meet both the A615 and A706 specifications, they must be marked with
both the letters S and W.

Available Bar Sizes in the Philippines

ASTM Standard Philippine Standard Nominal Area, mm2 Nominal Mass, kg/m
Bar Size Designation Bar Size Designation
3 10 79 0.618
4 12 113 0.890
5 16 201 1.580
6 20 314 2.465
7 n.a. n.a. n.a.
8 25 491 3.851
9 28 616 4.831
10 32 804 6.310
11 36 1019 7.986
14 40 1257 10.861
18 58 2642 20.729
*source: NSCP 2015

Identifying Marks on Reinforcing Bars

1. The producing company is indicated with a letter.
2. The bar size number (3 to 18) is given next.
3. Another letter is shown to identify the type of steel (S for billet, R in addition to a rail sign for rail steel, A for
axle, and W for low alloy).
4. The grade of the bars is shown either with numbers or with continuous lines. A Grade 60 bar has either the
number 60 on it or a continuous longitudinal line in addition to its main ribs. A Grade 75 bar will have the
number 75 on it or two continuous lines in addition to the main ribs.

CE 145 – Reinforced Concrete Design Marlon T. Acoba, MSCE

 College of Engineering
Department of Civil Engineering

Reference code of practice (NSCP C101, ACI 318 Publications)

 To reflect the reorganization of ACI 318-14 which contained a number of significant changes, the ASEP adopted
similar changes in the NSCP 2015 7th Edition. The latest ACI 318 was reorganized as a member-based
document, i.e., particular member type, such as beam, column, or slab will have separate sub-sections for all
requirements to design that a particular member type. This will eliminate the need to flip through several

CE 145 – Reinforced Concrete Design Marlon T. Acoba, MSCE

 College of Engineering
Department of Civil Engineering

Sections to comply with all the necessary design requirements for a particular structural member, as was
necessary with the old organization format.
Classification of Structures
- Section 103
Design Requirements
- Section 104
Minimum Design Loads
- Chapter 2
Structural Concrete
- Chapter 4

CE 145 – Reinforced Concrete Design Marlon T. Acoba, MSCE