Crack Width Predictions of Reinforced and Partially Prestressed Concrete Beams: A Unified Formula

Abstract

A total of 18 reinforced and 12 partially prestressed concrete full-size beams have been tested in which measurements of crack spacing and crack widths at different load levels were made. Using the results from 4 reinforced and 4 partially prestressed concrete simply supported beams, the relationship among four governing parameters is established. This leads to the development of a unified formula for predicting the average crack widths in reinforced and partially prestressed concrete beams. The performance of the proposed formula is checked using the test results, as well as the data published on 76 beams from other laboratory investigations. A comparative study indicates that the predictions are accurate. This chapter concludes that a unified formula is statistically derived for the prediction of average crack widths in both reinforced and partially prestressed concrete beams. The simple explicit formula is suitable for easy manual calculations and can be applied to predict the maximum crack widths using a multiplication factor of 1.5.