DESIGN OF RC STUCTURES:

Basic Material Properties:

Concrete consists of cement paste, aggregate and sometimes admixture. Cement

paste is the mixture of water and cement, which will act as binding medium.
Aggregate is the filler material of concrete. Two type of aggregate are there, first
one is the fine aggregate (i.e. sand) and second one is the coarse aggregate (i.e.
gravel or crushed stone). An admixture is the substance added to concrete mixes
with very little amount to improve certain property of concrete. When cement paste
and aggregate are mixed, placed in forms and cured then it will become hard like
rock. As concrete has weak tensile strength, bars are used to reinforce the concrete
to resist tensile stress coming from applied load. A reinforcing material should have
following properties: (a) high yield strength, (b) high modulus of elasticity, (c) good
bond with concrete, (d) coefficient of thermal expansion equal to that for concrete
and (e) easily available. Steel satisfies all of the above requirements, thus it is
widely used as reinforcing material all over the world.