Reinforced and prestressed concrete design: the complete process

Abstract

While the title of this book may suggest that it is a conventional textbook on reinforced and prestressed concrete design, this is not the case. The book is made up of three separate parts, the first two of which contain material not normally found in a book on the design of concrete structures. Part I of the book is on structural loading and qualitative design. It consists of three chapters which make up about one fifth of the total pages. Chapter 1 presents some rather elementary concepts such as the difference between tension and compression, and the difference between a truss and a frame. Chapter 2, on the other hand, is a valuable collection of short examples that illustrate the load paths in a variety of concrete structures from a simple one-story frame to a complex threedimensional frame structure with walls. Chapter 3 gives an overview of how to calculate the loads on a structure, such as permanent gravity loads, snow loads, and wind loads. Part I1 of this book is on structural analysis and preliminary design. The three chapters in this part make up about one quarter of the book. Chapter 4 reviews the fundamentals of structural analysis, including determinate structures, the linear analysis of indeterminate structures (by stiffness method and moment distribution), and a brief overview of nonlinear methods for indeterminate structures. Chapter 5 presents the application of structural analysis to concrete structures. This is a valuable chapter that includes an interesting discussion on the redistribution of bending moments in beams and slabs, and the application of yield line method and lower bound approaches to the analysis of reinforced concrete slabs. Chapter 6 provides some useful rules of thumb for the preliminary design of reinforced concrete beams, slabs, and columns. The final part of this book deals with the analysis and design of members, similar to what is normally found in a textbook on the design of concrete structures. Chapter 7 deals with the design of reinforced concrete members for flexure, while Chap. 8, which was written in collaboration with Robert Loov (University of Calgary), does the same for prestressed concrete members. Together these two chapters provide a comprehensive coverage of the flexural analysis and design of structural concrete members. Short and long columns are presented together in Chap. 9. Also included in that chapter is the shear design of deep beams (with span-todepth ratios less than 2). The authors' reasoning for this unusual organization is that the load transfer in both columns and deep beams involves significant concrete compressive stresses. Finally, Chap. 10 presents design for shear and torsion. As only half of this book deals with the design of structural concrete members, the authors are not able to provide complete coverage of reinforced and prestressed concrete design. For example, bond and anchorage is treated in only about three pages in the chapter on flexural design of reinforced concrete, and except for the brief discussion of deep beams in the chapter on columns, nothing is given about the design of disturbed (discontinuity) regions. The wide treatment of material from preliminary design to structural analysis and member design suggests that this book would be a useful reference tool. The bibliography is, however, disappointingly short so the reader will need to look elsewhere for suggestions on further reading. Canadian engineers will be frustrated by the reference to Eurocdes, which are significantly different from Canadian codes in notation and form, as well as some technical aspects. One of the best features of this book is how concepts are explained through solved example problems. This makes the book particularly suitable as a self-study tool for anyone wishing to get an overview of the complete process of analysis and design of structural concrete.