ESTIMATION OF CRACK WIDTH IN REINFORCED CONCRETE MEMBERS
Keywords:
Crack width, Concrete Beam, IS code, Eurocode, Finland code, German CodeAbstract
In this paper, the crack width in reinforced concrete beams is investigated. In practice, the propagation of concrete crack width is seen as one of the most significant benchmarks for the designing and investigation of the long term amenity of the reinforced concrete structures. It is therefore beneficiary and necessary to gain full understanding of the process of growth of crack width over time. This paper attempts to assess the phenomenon of concrete cracking and estimate the concrete surface crack width under the action of applied loads. This assessment is carried out by analytical methods. In the analytical method, the experimental RC beams were taken as examples for the computation of the crack width by using the simplified methods as given in the standard design codes of reinforced concrete structures (IS: 456-2000).The codes used for comparison are Eurocode, national code of Finland, German Institute for standardization and IS code. The crack width is compared for different cases like clear cover, diameter of reinforcements etc.
