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This paper presents a methodology for the flexural strength design high-strength steel: Grade 100 and 120 (690 and 830 MPa).
of concrete beams reinforced with high-strength reinforcing steel It cautions designers, however, that current design requirements
that conforms to the requirements of ASTM A1035-07. The design limit the allowable design strength of reinforcements to 80 ksi
method is based on simple analysis techniques that satisfy (550 MPa). This limitation prevents engineers from fully
fundamental principles of equilibrium and compatibility. Strain
using the enhanced strength characteristics of these materials
limits for tension-controlled sections and compression-controlled
sections are proposed that are consistent with the approach of the and therefore represents a practical obstacle to the transfer of
current and past ACI 318 Codes. The proposed method is the technology to the engineering community.
compared with experimental results previously reported by others. To lift the 80 ksi (550 MPa) yield strength limitation of the
The application of the proposed method is demonstrated by a current ACI 318 Code, a design methodology is proposed
numerical design example. based on accepted engineering principles and analysis
techniques. The proposed design methodology demonstrates
Keywords: flexure; flexural design; high-strength reinforcement; high- that the flexural strength of members reinforced with high-
strength steel; reinforcing bars; strength design. strength steel will be comparable with the flexural strength of
members designed according to the current design provisions.
INTRODUCTION
Recently, high-strength steel reinforcement conforming to RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE
ASTM A1035-071 has been developed. The stress-strain This paper presents a design methodology, in similar
characteristics of the reinforcement are quite different from format to the current ACI 318 provisions, for the flexural
conventional Grade 60 (400 MPa) steel reinforcement. The strength design of concrete beams reinforced with ASTM
new steel is considerably stronger than conventional A1035-071 Grade 100 (690 MPa) steel bars. The discussion
reinforcing steel and lacks a well-defined yield point. There is limited to reinforcing bars having stress-strain characteristics
are several practical advantages to using this new high- that are similar to the high-strength steel commercially
strength material, including reduction of congestion in known as MMFX; however, the proposed design concept is
heavily reinforced members, improved concrete placement, valid for any high-strength steel that does not exhibit a distinct
savings in the cost of labor, reduction of construction time yield plateau. The proposed tension-controlled strain limits
and, in some cases, enhanced resistance to corrosion. ensure that the strain, curvature, and deflection deformability
Research on the use of high-strength steel as reinforcement ratios of beams designed according to the proposed method-
for reinforced concrete members has been ongoing for some ology are comparable to the ratios for beams designed
time. The flexural behavior of concrete beams reinforced according to current and previous ACI 318 provisions. The
with high-strength reinforcing bars has been investigated proposed method will enable the designers to take full
experimentally by a number of researchers.2-4 The available advantage of high-strength steel bars as reinforcement for
research indicates that, when properly designed, beams concrete structures.
reinforced with high-strength reinforcing bars will achieve
similar strength characteristics to beams reinforced with CHARACTERISTICS OF HIGH-STRENGTH
conventional steel reinforcements. REINFORCING STEELS
Other research has indicated that high-strength reinforcing A number of high-strength reinforcing steels are currently
bars can be effectively used as a replacement for conventional available for the design and construction of reinforced
steel reinforcing bars for typical reinforced concrete bridge concrete flexural members. The typical stress-strain relationships
decks.5 The research indicates that, due to the use of high- of several different high-strength reinforcing steels are
strength steel reinforcing bars, the required steel area can be presented in Fig. 1(a), along with the stress-strain relationship of
reduced by up to 33% while maintaining comparable conventional Grade 60 (400 MPa) steel for comparison. As seen
behavior to bridge decks reinforced with conventional Grade 60 in the figure, the stress-strain curve of typical high-strength
(400 MPa) steel. Detailing requirements, including the steel is characterized by an initial linear portion followed by
strength of bent bars and bond characteristics, have also a nonlinear section. The absence of a distinct yield plateau is
been investigated5 and additional research is ongoing at characteristic of most high-strength steel. Despite the lack of
several universities. a well-defined yield point, most high-strength reinforcing
In addition to the ongoing research in this field, the recent
publication of ASTM A1035-071 that outlines structural ACI Structural Journal, V. 105, No. 4, September-October 2008.
MS No. M-2006-491.R2 received November 14, 2007, and reviewed under Institute
specifications for low-carbon and chromium steel bars publication policies. Copyright 2008, American Concrete Institute. All rights reserved,
further facilitates the use of high-strength steel as reinforcing including the making of copies unless permission is obtained from the copyright proprietors.
Pertinent discussion including authors closure, if any, will be published in the July-
for concrete structures. The standard specifies two grades of August 2009 ACI Structural Journal if the discussion is received by March 1, 2009.
ACI member Mina Dawood is a PhD Candidate at North Carolina State University,
Raleigh, NC. He received his BSc from the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB,
Canada, in 2003 and his MS from North Carolina State University in 2005.
beams were designed according to ACI 318 Code requirements additional deflection after yielding because the flat-top shape of
using conventional reinforcing steel. For each of the beams, the moment-curvature diagram causes yielding to occur only
the strain, curvature, and deflection deformability ratios over a short length of the beam near midspan. The deflection at
were considered to evaluate the limits of desirable behavior. nominal strength is 1.95 times that at service load ( ratio).
The remaining five beams were reinforced with high-strength
reinforcement and the deformability ratios were also considered. Behavior based on ACI 318-0213 and later Codes
The example beams all consisted of a 12 x 30 in. (305 x Flexural members at the current reinforcement limits for
760 mm) cross section with a simple span of 40 ft (12,200 mm). tension-controlled sections given in ACI 318-0213 and later
The depth to the reinforcement from the top of the section
Codes were examined to form a basis for what is currently
was 28 in. (710 mm) in all cases. A concrete strength of 5000 psi
acceptable behavior. Sections reinforced with Grade 60
(34 MPa) was assumed, but for the beams reinforced with
(400 MPa) and Grade 75 (520 MPa) steel were considered.
high-strength steel, concrete strengths from 4000 to
The service load was assumed to be 2/3 of nominal strength
10,000 psi (28 to 69 MPa) were considered.
based on an average load factor equal to 1.35 and a resistance
factor equal to 0.9. For the example beam reinforced with
Behavior based on ACI 318-9915 and previous Codes
Using ACI 318-9915 and previous Codes, the beam was Grade 60 (400 MPa) steel, the limiting area of tension
designed at the 0.75b limit with a reinforcing steel area of reinforcing steel was calculated as 7.14 in.2 (4610 mm 2).
8.45 in.2 (5450 mm 2). Based on a load factor of 1.5 and a The corresponding service moment and tension stress in the
resistance factor of 0.9, the service load was taken to be 0.6 times steel were 560 kip-ft (759 kN-m) and 39 ksi (239 MPa),
the calculated nominal strength of the member. The calculated respectively. When considering Grade 75 (520 MPa) steel,
service moment and corresponding steel tension stress were the corresponding area of reinforcement, service moment,
577 kip-ft (783 kN-m) and 34 ksi (234 MPa), respectively. and stress in the steel were 5.71 in.2 (3680 mm 2), 559 kip-ft
Figure 5(a) shows a moment-curvature diagram for a (758 kN-m), and 48 ksi (330 MPa), respectively.
beam at the reinforcement limit of 0.75b, as permitted by Figure 6(a) shows a moment-curvature diagram for beams
the ACI 318 Codes prior to 2002. The behavior was almost at the net tensile strain limit of 0.005 for tension-controlled
bilinear, with the break point occurring very close to a steel stress sections. The behavior is almost bilinear, with the break
equal to fy. The curvature at nominal strength was 3.03 times that point occurring very close to a steel stress equal to fy. For
at service load ( ratio). The net tensile strain of the steel at Grade 75 (520 MPa) steel, the curvature at nominal strength
nominal strength was 2.87 times that at service load ( ratio). was 2.92 times that at service load ( ratio). The net tensile
Figure 5(b) shows the moment-deflection relationship for a strain of the steel at nominal strength was 2.98 times that at
uniformly loaded beam. There is only a small amount of service load ( ratio). Figure 6(b) shows the moment-deflection
CRITERIA FOR SIMPLIFIED DESIGN METHOD Fig. 7Behavior of beam designed with high-strength
The simplified design method uses the simplified 100 ksi reinforcing steel: (a) moment curvature; and (b) moment
(690 MPa) material model to describe the behavior of the deflection.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The preparation of the paper is based on the results of a number of
research projects sponsored by MMFX Technologies whose support is
gratefully acknowledged.
REFERENCES
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