Civil Engineering Association

This book is intended for the use of final year undergraduates and in the design office. It is an attempt to bridge the gap between conventional design procedures for continuous concrete beams, based on an elastic distribution of moments at working Ioad, and the ultimate Ioad approach, which is based on the plastic behaviour of concrete beams. The text assumes that the reader has an elementary knowledge of the elastic sizing of reinforced concrete sections and is reasonably familiar with the section of CP 114 : 1957 relating to design considerations.
Chapter 1 discusses the limitations of elastic design and the basis of ultimate Ioad design together with British, American and Russian design rules. Chapters 2 and 3 dea1 with the behavior of reinforced and prestressed concrete sections under Ioad. In Chapter 4 the formation of plastic hinges is discussed together with a summary of the work of Professor A.L.L. Baker. The final two chapters consider Serviceability requirements, crack width limitations etc., and the problems of shear and torsion. Several worked examples are included in the text together with a comprehensive reference Iist and metric conversion table.