Properties of Reinforced Concrete

Abstract

Reinforced concrete is a strong durable building material that can be formed into many varied shapes and sizes ranging from a simple rectangular column, to a slender curved dome or shell. Its utility and verstatility is achieved by combining the best features of concrete and steel. Consider some of the widely differing properties of these two materials that are listed below.

	Concrete	Steel
strength in tension	poor	good
strength in compression	good	good, but slender bars will buckle
strength in shear	fair	good
durability	good	corrodes if unprotected
fire resistance	good	poor — suffers rapid loss of strength at high temperatures

It can be seen from this list that the materials are more or less complementary. Thus, when they are combined, the steel is able to provide the tensile strength and probably some of the shear strength while the concrete, strong in compression, protects the steel to give durability and fire resistance. This chapter can present only a brief introduction to the basic properties of concrete and its steel reinforcement. For a more comprehensive study, it is recommended that reference should be made to the specialised texts listed in Further Reading at the end of the book.