What are the reasons of establishing

minimum area of reinforcement and

maximum area of reinforcement?
Beams may be designed to be larger than required for strength consideration owing
to aesthetics or other reasons. As such, the corresponding steel ratio is very low and
the moment capacity of pure concrete section based on the modulus of rupture is
higher than its ultimate moment of resistance. As a result, reinforcement yields first
and extremely wide cracks will be formed. A minimum area of reinforcement is
specified to avoid the formation of wide cracks.

On the other hand, a maximum area of reinforcement is specified to enable the

placing and compaction of fresh concrete to take place easily.

What is the purpose of critical steel ratio in

concrete structures?
The purpose of critical steel ratio is to control the cracking pattern by having
concrete failing in tension first. If steel reinforcement yields first before the limit of
concrete tensile strength is reached, then wide and few cracks would be formed. In
the calculation of critical steel ratio, the thickness of the whole concrete section is
adopted for analysis. However, if the concrete section exceeds 500mm in thickness,
only the outer 250mm concrete has to be considered in calculating minimum
reinforcement to control thermal and shrinkage cracks. It is because experimental
works showed that for concrete section greater than 500mm, the outer 250mm on
each face could be regarded as surface zone while the remaining could be regarded
as core. The minimum reinforcement to control cracking should therefore be
calculated based on a total maximum thickness of 500mm.

What are the reasons for establishing minimum

distance between bars and maximum distance
between bars?

In some codes, a minimum distance between bars is specified to allow for sufficient
space to accommodate internal vibrators during compaction.

On the other hand, the restriction of maximum bar spacing is mainly for controlling
crack width. For a given area of tension steel areas, the distribution of steel
reinforcement affects the pattern of crack formation. It is preferable to have smaller
bars at closer spacing rather than larger bars at larger spacing to be effective in
controlling cracks. Hence, the limitation of bar spacing beyond a certain value (i.e.
maximum distance between bars) aims at better control of crack widths.

What is the purpose of skin reinforcement for

deep beams?

In BS8110, it states that secondary reinforcement should be provided for beams

exceeding 750mm deep at a distance measured 2/3 depth from the tension face.
Experimental works revealed that at or close to mid-depth of deep beams, the
maximum width of cracks arising from flexure may be about two to three times
larger than the width of the same crack at the level of surface where the crack
originally forms.

The presence of crack is undesirable from aesthetic point of view. Moreover, it poses
potential corrosion problems to reinforcement of deep beams. To safeguard against
these crack formation, skin reinforcement is designed on the sides of deep beams to
limit the formation of flexural crack widths. Though the principal function of skin
reinforcement is to control crack width, it may be employed for providing bending
resistance of the section.

What is the mechanism of plastic settlement in

fresh concrete?
Within a few hours after the placing of fresh concrete, plastic concrete may
experience cracking owing to the occurrence of plastic shrinkage and plastic
settlement. The cause of plastic settlement is related to bleeding of fresh concrete.
Bleeding refers to the migration of water to the top of concrete and the movement of
solid particles to the bottom of fresh concrete. The expulsion of water during
bleeding results in the reduction of the volume of fresh concrete. This induces a
downward movement of wet concrete. If such movement is hindered by the
presence of obstacles like steel reinforcement, cracks will be formed.

Should high-yield steel or mild steel be designed

as road reinforcement?

High yield steel is the preferred material for the reinforcement of concrete
carriageway because of the following reasons:
(i) The principal function of steel reinforcement in concrete pavement is to control
cracking. If mild steel is adopted for reinforcement, upon initiation of crack
formation mild steel becomes overstressed and is
prone to yielding. High yield steel offers resistance to crack growth. The above
situation is commonly encountered where there is abnormal traffic loads on concrete
carriageway exceeding the design limit.

(ii) High-yield steel is less prone to deformation and bending during routine handling
operation.

(iii) In the current market, steel mesh reinforcement is normally of high-yield steel
type and the use of mild steel as road reinforcement requires the placing of special
orders to the suppliers

What is the difference between plastic shrinkage

cracks and crazing cracks?

Plastic shrinkage cracks are caused by a rapid loss of water from concrete surface
before setting of concrete such that the rate of evaporation of surface water is
higher than the rate of replacement of upward rising water. Tensile force is
developed at concrete surface which forms plastic shrinkage cracks when the
concrete starts to stiffen. Plastic shrinkage cracks appear to be parallel to each other
with spacing of about 300mm to 1m. The cracks are shallow and generally do not
intersect the perimeter of concrete slab.

Crazing is the formation of a network of fine cracks on concrete surface caused by

early shrinkage of surface layer. The pattern of crazing cracks is in the form of
irregular hexagon. The cause of crazing cracks is the
shrinkage of concentrated dense cement paste at concrete surface. A wet mix tends
to depress the coarse aggregates and form a highly concentrated cement paste and
fines on surface. Hence, the difference
between plastic shrinkage cracks and crazing cracks lies in the fact that crazing
cracks arise from the shrinkage of weak material such as laitance in concrete surface
while plastic shrinkage cracks appear even in normal concrete surface.
What is the effect of rusting on steel
reinforcement?

(i) The presence of rust impairs the bond strength of deformed reinforcement
because corrosion occurs at the raised ribs and fills the gap between ribs, thus
evening out the original deformed shape. In essence, the bond between concrete
and deformed bars originates from the mechanical lock between the raised ribs and
concrete. The reduction of mechanical locks by corrosion results in the decline in
bond strength with concrete.

(ii) The presence of corrosion reduces the effective cross sectional area of the steel
reinforcement. Hence, the available tensile capacity of steel reinforcement is reduced
by a considerable reduction in the cross sectional area.

(iii) The corrosion products occupy about 3 times the original volume of steel from
which it is formed. Such drastic increase in volume generates significant bursting
forces in the vicinity of steel reinforcement. Consequently, cracks are formed along
the steel reinforcement when the tensile strength of concrete is exceeded.

What is the difference between no-fines

concrete, lightweight concrete and lean concrete?

Pervious concrete is sometimes called no fines concrete. It is designed with high

porosity and allows water to pass though. It is commonly used in concrete pavement
so as to reduce surface runoff and allow the recharging of ground water. The high
porosity is achieved by a network of interconnected void. No fines concrete has
little or no fines and contains just enough cement paste to cover the surface of
coarse aggregates while maintaining the interconnectivity of voids.

Lightweight concrete is characterized by low density (1,400kg/m 3 to 1,800 kg/m3)

and is made of lightweight coarse aggregates. In some cases, even the fine
aggregates are also lightweight too. The primary use of lightweight concrete is to
reduce the dead load of concrete structures.

Lean concrete, which is also known as cement bound material, has low
cementitious material content. It has low concrete strength and is commonly used
as roadbase material.
What are the advantages in using castellated
beams?

Castellated beams refer to the type of beams which involve expanding a standard
rolled steel section in such a way that a predetermined pattern is cut on section
webs and the rolled section is cut into two halves. The two halves are joined
together by welding and the high points of the web pattern are connected together
to form a castellated beam. The castellated beams were commonly used in Europe in
1950s due to the limited ranges of the available steel rolled section and the cheap
labour cost. In terms of structural performance, the operation of splitting and
expanding the rolled steel sections helps to increase the section modulus of the
beams.

Moreover, it is versatile for its high strength to weight ratio so that lighter section
can be designed with subsequent cost saving in foundation.

What are the potential advantages in using

lightweight aggregates in bridges?

(i) Owing to reduced dead load by using lightweight aggregates, there are savings in
structural material such as the cost of foundation and
falsework.

(ii) It brings about environmental benefits when industrial waste products are used
to manufacture lightweight aggregates.

(iii) It enhances higher durability by having lower coefficient of thermal expansion

which reduces the thermal movement. Moreover, it has lower permeability and
higher resistance to freeze-thaw cycles when compared with normal aggregates.

What is the difference between carbonation and

carbon dioxide attack?

For carbon dioxide attack, carbon dioxide dissolves in water to form a weak acid
called carbonic acid. It would dissolve the cement matrix. However, the amount of
carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is usually not sufficient to cause harm to
concrete structures until additional source of carbon dioxide is available (e.g.
decaying vegetable matter).

Carbonation is the process of converting alkaline hydroxides in concrete to

carbonates by reaction with carbon dioxide. The significance of carbonation lies in
the reduction of pH of pore water in concrete structure from 12-13 to 8-9 so that it
drops the protection to steel reinforcement. The process takes place at concrete
surface and spreads inwards. The passive nature play an important role in steel
corrosion as it prevents corrosion even in the presence of water and oxygen. This
passive nature is derived from a stable and thin layer of iron oxide formed at the
surface of steel reinforcement. However, if the pH of concrete is dropped, this
passive oxide layer becomes unstable and corrosion may start once water and
oxygen supply is available

Should cement and aggregates be measured by

weight or by volume?

Measurement of constituents for concrete is normally carried out by weight because

of the following reasons :

(i) Air is trapped inside cement while water may be present in aggregates. As such
measurement by volume requires the consideration of the bulking effect by air and
water.

(ii) The accuracy of measurement of cement and aggregates by weight is higher

when compared with measurement by volume when the weighing machine is
properly calibrated and maintained. This reduces the potential of deviation in
material quantity with higher accuracy in measurement for the design mix and leads
to more economical design without the wastage of excess materials.

Is mild steel or high yield steel suitable as lifting

hoops in precast concrete?

The strength of high yield steel is undoubtedly higher than mild steel and hence high
yield steel is commonly used as main steel reinforcement in concrete structures.
However, mild yield steel is commonly used in links or stirrups because they can be
subjected to bending of a lower radius of curvature.
For lifting hoops in precast concrete, it is essential that the hoops can be bent easily
and hence mild steel is commonly adopted for lifting hoops because high yield bars
may undergo tension cracking when it is bent through a small radius.

What are the potential problems for retardation

of fresh concrete?

Retardation of fresh concrete has several advantages as follows:

(i) A rapid hydration process results in loss in concrete strength because the
concrete will have a poorer structure with a higher gel/space ratio compared with
the concrete with a lower hydration rate.

(ii) During the hydration process, a substantial heat of hydration will be generated.
If the hydration process is carried out too swiftly, it will cause a rapid rise in
temperature and results in considerable early thermal movement in concrete.

(iii) In hot weather concreting, the loss of workability is substantial. In order to

ensure sufficient compaction of fresh concrete, it is necessary to extend the time for
fresh concrete to remain plastic.

What is the problem of over vibration of fresh

concrete?

For proper compaction of concrete by immersion vibrators, the vibrating part of the
vibrators should be completely inserted into the concrete. The action of compaction
is enhanced by providing a sufficient head of concrete above the vibrating part of the
vibrators. This serves to push down and subject the fresh concrete to confinement
within the zone of vibrating action.

Over vibration should normally be avoided during the compaction of concrete. If the
concrete mix is designed with low workability, over vibration simply consumes extra
power of the vibration, resulting in the wastage of energy. For most of concrete
mixes, over-vibration creates the problem of segregation in which the denser
aggregates settle to the bottom while the lighter cement paste tends to move
upwards. If the concrete structure is cast by successive lifts of concrete pour, the
upper weaker layer (or laitance) caused by segregation forms the potential plane of
weakness leading to possible failure of the concrete structure during operation. If
concrete is placed in a single lift for road works, the resistance to abrasion is poor
for the laitance surface of the carriageway. This becomes a critical problem to
concrete carriageway where its surface is constantly subject to tearing and traction
forces exerted by vehicular traffic.

What are the three major types of reinforcement

used in prestressing?

(i)Spalling reinforcement
Spalling stresses are established behind the loaded area of anchor blocks and this
causes breaking away of surface concrete. These stresses are induced by strain
incompatibility with Poissons effects or by the shape of stress trajectories.

(ii)Equilibrium reinforcement
Equilibrium reinforcement is required where there are several anchorages in which
prestressing loads are applied sequentially.

(iii)Bursting Reinforcement
Tensile stresses are induced during prestressing operation and the maximum
bursting stress occurs where the stress trajectories are concave towards the line of
action of the load. Reinforcement is needed to resist these lateral tensile forces.

What is the difference between curing compound

and sealing compound?

Curing compound is primarily used for reducing the loss of moisture from freshly-
placed concrete and it is applied once after concrete finishing is completed. Sealing
compounds is adopted to retard the entrance of
damaging materials into concrete and they are normally applied after the concrete is
placed for 28 days. The harmful substances include water, deicing solutions and
carbon dioxide which eventually cause freeze-thaw
damage, steel corrosion and acid attack respectively.

Which type of bar reinforcement is more

corrosion resistant, epoxy-coated bars, stainless
steel bars or galvanized bars?
Based on the experiment conducted by the Building Research Establishment, it was
shown that the corrosion resistance of galvanized steel was the worst among the
three types of bar reinforcement. For galvanized steel bars, corrosion started to
occur when a certain chloride content in concrete (i.e. 0.4% by cement weight) was
exceeded. However, for epoxy-coated bars, they extended the time taken for
cracking to occur when compared with galvanized steel bars.

The best corrosion resistant reinforcement among all is stainless steel. In particular,
austenitic stainless steel stayed uncorroded even there was chloride contamination
in concrete in the experiment.

Why are insulating washers installed between

steel bolts and connecting aluminium plates?

Corrosion of aluminium can be triggered by putting it in contact with another metal

in the presence of water. This is known as bimetallic corrosion or galvanic corrosion.
The mechanism of such corrosion is the formation of a cell in moist condition so that
an electric current is generated to flow between the two metals in direct contact. The
degree of corrosion is influenced by the nature of connecting metals, their electrode
potential, their areas, conductivity of fluid etc.

When aluminium plates are connected together by means of steel bolts, bimetallic
corrosion may occur. Where there is presence of a good electrolyte like seawater,
there may be local attack on aluminium. Therefore, some jointing compound or
insulating insert and washer are adopted to insulate electrically the dissimilar metals
from one another.