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5 Concrete Reinforcing: CE 405-CE22S7 - Construction Materials and Testing

2.5 Concrete Reinforcing

The Concept of Reinforcing
Concrete has no useful tensile strength. The compatibility of steel and concrete is a fortuitous accident. If the two materials had grossly different coefficients of thermal
expansion, a reinforced concrete structure would tear itself apart during seasonal cycles of temperature variation. If the two materials were chemically incompatible, the steel
would corrode or the concrete would be degraded. If concrete did not adhere to steel, a very different and more expensive configuration of reinforcing would be necessary.
Concrete and steel, however, change dimension at nearly the same rate in response to temperature changes; steel is protected from corrosion by the alkaline chemistry of
concrete; and concrete bonds strongly to steel, providing a convenient means of adapting brittle concrete to structural elements that must resist not only compression, but
tension, shear, and bending as well. The basic theory of reinforced concrete is extremely simple: Put the reinforcing steel where there are tensile forces in a structural member,
and let the concrete resist the compression. This accounts fairly precisely for the location of most of the reinforcing steel that is used in a concrete structure. However, there are
some important exceptions: Steel is used to resist a share of the compression in concrete columns and in beams whose height must be reduced for architectural reasons. It is
used in the form of column ties, discussed below, to prevent buckling of vertical reinforcing in columns. It is used to resist cracking that might otherwise be caused by curing
shrinkage, and by thermal expansion and contraction in slabs and walls.

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