COMPARATIVE ANALYTICAL STUDY ON CRACK WIDTH OF REINFORCED CONCRETE STRUCTURES

Abstract

This study investigates the cracking behavior of flexural reinforced concrete beams which was model analytically and numerically to link the results of the research with the equations of the famous codes in this field to reach the appropriate recommendations. The analytical program included twelve groups of reinforced concrete beams. The parameters studied analytically in this work include the parameters affecting on the crack width such as steel stress, concrete cover for longitudinal reinforcement at tension zone, surface geometry of reinforcement bar (smooth, deformed), area of longitudinal tension steel, spacing between bars in tension zone, diameter of bars in tension zone and compressive strength for concrete. The numerical program included a 3-D finite element analysis through the well-known program. Verification of the numerical model has been done to check the accuracy of results. The numerical models were compared with other experimentally tested beams found in literature review then compared with the analytical results of the suggested reinforced concrete beams models in the analytical program. It was concluded that some codes doesn’t take into consideration the effect of some important variables and cases on the width of the crack. Also, it was found that that some codes are not clear in the region concerning the position of the crack width calculation and the values obtained for the crack width. JSCE (2007) equation for calculating crack width the most suitable for calculating value of crack width because it take into consideration the most important factor which effected on the crack width.