Concrete is a wonder material and it is extremely strong under compression. However its major weakness is that it cannot take tension and cracks easily under it.
That’s why we reinforce the concrete by adding steel cables to resist the tension that the concrete takes, so that it doesn’t crack.
To analyse reinforced concrete beams, we can use the same transformation method we learnt in Chapter 2.2. Our transformed cross-section is one where:
-
steel is transformed to have Econcrete
-
the concrete portion below the neutral-axis will be removed because we assume it doesn’t take any tension; all tension will be taken by the steel.
This might sound complex, and the best way to learn is via an example.
Concrete is a wonder material and it is extremely strong under compression. However its major weakness is that it cannot take tension and cracks easily under it.
That’s why we reinforce the concrete by adding steel cables to resist the tension that the concrete takes, so that it doesn’t crack.
To analyse reinforced concrete beams, we can use the same transformation method we learnt in Chapter 2.2. Our transformed cross-section is one where:
-
steel is transformed to have Econcrete
-
the concrete portion below the neutral-axis will be removed because we assume it doesn’t take any tension; all tension will be taken by the steel.
This might sound complex, and the best way to learn is via an example.
