1.

1 STRESS STRAIN RELATIONSHIPS AND MODES OF FAILURE

1.1.1 Concrete

The figure beside show the short term stress/strain relationship for a concrete test cylinder in
compression. The peak in stress is known as the compressive strength. Beyond this point of maximum
strength, the stress must be decreased if the failure is to be prevented. The compressive strength and its
corresponding strain are mentioned EC2 table 3.1. The secant modulus, E cm can be expressed as
described in table 3.1 also.
1.1.2 Steel

The stress/strain relationship for reinforcement is reasonably linear for a considerable portion of
the diagram. The elastic modulus, Es, is equal to the slope of the linear portion of the diagram.
EC2 allows a mean value of 200,000 N/mm2 to be assumed for Es. For cold worked steel, the 0.2
per cent proof stress, f0.2k, at which yielding is said to occur, is defined as the stress at which
strain has exceeded the value predicted by the linear relationship by 0.002. Hot rolled steel has a
definite yield point and characteristic yield stress, f yk, at which yielding occurs. Typical
stress/strain diagrams for cold worked and hot rolled steel reinforcement in compression or
tension are illustrated in Fig. 8.18. The yield stress is of equal magnitude in tension and
compression. Beyond this point, increases in stress result in progressively larger increases in
strain. The ultimate tensile and compressive strengths are also equal in magnitude and are
denoted by ftk.

1.1.3 Structural member

As loads are increased further, the strain distribution remains linear but the stress distribution
becomes non-linear as illustrated in Fig. 8.19(d). At the ultimate limit state, under maximum
load, strains in the concrete at the extreme fibres in compression reach εcu1, and the distribution
of stress is as illustrated in Fig. 8.19(e). The stress distribution in the concrete in compression has
approximately the same shape as the stress/strain relationship of Fig. 8.17. However, the two do
not correspond directly as the situation for a fibre of concrete in bending is different from that for
concrete in a standard test cylinder. Considerable research effort has been expended in
attempting to determine the exact shape of the distribution in Fig. 8.19(e). Fortunately, the
calculation of the moment required to cause this ultimate distribution of stress is insensitive to
the exact shape of the distribution and crude approximations of the shape are quite acceptable for
design purposes.

1.2 ULTIMATE MOMENT CAPACITY

1.2.1 Concrete
Rather than using the actual stress/strain diagram for concrete given in Fig. 8.19(e), other
idealized diagrams can be used in order to simplify member design. The idealized stress/strain
diagrams for concrete specified in EC2 are the parabolic-rectangular, the bi-linear and the
equivalent rectangular diagrams illustrated in Fig. 8.21. The diagrams to be applied in design
(shown solid) are derived from the idealized diagrams (shown dotted) by means of a reduction of
all stresses in the idealized diagrams by the factor αcc/γc, where:
αcc = coefficient which takes account of long-term effects on the compressive strength and of the
unfavorable effects resulting from the way in which the load is applied: αcc = 0.85 for
compression in flexure and axial loading, α cc = 1.0 for other phenomena (conservatively, αcc may
be taken as 0.85 for all phenomena)
γc = partial factor of safety for concrete strength equal to 1.5.

1.2.2 Reinforcement
For reinforcement, the simplified stress/strain diagram adopted in EC2 is the bi-linear diagram
illustrated in Fig. 8.22(a) in which f yk is the characteristic yield strength and ftk is the
characteristic ultimate strength. The limiting strain in the reinforcement depends on the ductility
class of the reinforcing steel. For further simplicity, the diagram can be altered so that the top
branch is horizontal, as illustrated in Fig. 8.22(b). In this case, no limit on the steel strain is
necessary. In both cases, the idealized diagrams are shown dotted. The corresponding design
diagrams are obtained by factoring the stresses of the idealized diagrams by 1/γ s where γs is the
partial factor of safety for the strength of steel. At ULS, γs = 1.15. The design value for the elastic
modulus, Es, is 200,000 N/mm2.
1.2.3 Prestressing steel
The steel used for prestressed concrete comes in the form of either cold-drawn high-strength wire
or high-strength alloy steel bars. The use of high-yield bars, however, is generally limited as they
do not have the flexibility to be profiled along the length of the member. High tensile steel wire
is by far the more widely used material for both pre-tensioning and post-tensioning.

The short-term stress–strain relationship for a typical wire specimen is illustrated in Fig. 9.5.
Failure generally occurs at a strain somewhere between 0.04 and 0.06. For design, EC2 specifies
a design strain limit of εud = 0.02. The ultimate characteristic tensile strength, fpk, of most
manufactured wires is approximately 1,800 N/mm2 (compared with 500 N/mm2 for ordinary
reinforcement) and the elastic modulus may be taken to be about 205,000 N/mm 2 (refer to EC2 cl
3.3.6 (1),(2)) for wires and bars. It can be seen from the figure that there is no definite elastic yield
point. For this reason, the concept of proof stress is used as an equivalent yield stress. The most
frequently used proof stress is the characteristic 0.1 percent proof stress, fp,0.1k, which is the point
on the stress–strain curve which intersects with a straight line drawn at a slope equal to the
elastic modulus starting from 0.1 per cent strain (see Fig. 9.5). To ensure adequate ductility in
tension, fpk/fp,0.1k ≥ 1.1or fp,0.1k =0.9 fpk (refer cl 3.3.4(5) & 3.3.6(Note)).
Structural member
For a rectangular section with specified total depth h and having constant breadth b, as illustrated in Fig. 8.25(a),
Equation (8.18) becomes:
The term is equal to the total area under the compressive stress block for the concrete.
Clearly, the value of the total area is dependent on which of the distributions of Fig. 8.21 is
adopted. Fortunately, while the distributions are quite different in form, the areas under each are
in fact quite similar in magnitude. The simplest of these is the equivalent rectangular stress block
of Fig. 8.21(c). In this case, the stress is constant for all strains in excess of 0.0007 and is zero
elsewhere. When a section is on the point of collapse, the strain at the extreme fibre is ε cu3, as
illustrated in Fig. 8.25(b).

Thus, the strain increases linearly from zero at the neutral axis to a maximum of εcu3, at the
extreme fibre in compression. The strain is 0.0007 at a distance from the neutral axis of:

Hence the stress distribution is as illustrated in Fig. 8.25(c). The total compressive force in the
concrete is simply the product of stress and area. Taking the gross section:

*correction on 08xb to 0.8xb

 Fs= fsAs
Corresponding steel stress, fs= εsEs
final steel strain, εs= prestress strain + bending strain (below figure)
*if εs > εcu (0.0035), fs straight take fp,01k/gs
prestress strain = fs’/Es
stress in tendon wires after losses,fs’

In summary:
*correction on the equal sign change to approximate equal to