Engineering Structures 22 (2000) 11451158

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Effect of the concrete compressive strength and tensile
reinforcement ratio on the exural behavior of brous concrete
beams
Samir A. Ashour
*
, Faisal F. Wafa, Mohmd I. Kamal
Civil Engineering Department King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Received 18 January 1999; received in revised form 22 April 1999; accepted 4 June 1999
Abstract
Twenty seven reinforced concrete beams were tested to study the effects of steel bers, longitudinal tensile reinforcement ratio
and concrete compressive strength on the exural behavior of reinforced concrete beams.
Concrete compressive strengths of 49, 79 and 102 MPa and tensile reinforcement ratios of 1.18, 1.77 and 2.37% were used. The
ber contents were 0.0, 0.5 and 1.0% by volume. The results show that the additional moment strength provided by bers was not
affected by the amount of tensile reinforcement ratio. However, the concrete compressive strength inuenced the ber contribution
signicantly. The exural rigidity increases as the concrete compressive strength and steel ber content increases. The transition
of effective moment of inertia from uncracked to fully cracked sections depends strongly on the considered variables. A previously
proposed formula in the literature for the estimation of the effective moment of inertia is modied to consider the effect of reinforce-
ment ratio and concrete compressive strength as well as ber content. 2000 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Beams (supports); Compressive strength; Cracking; Deection; Flexural strength; Flexural rigidity; High-strength concrete; Moment of
inertia; Reinforced concrete; Steel bers; Tensile reinforcement ratio
1. Introduction
The maximum potentiality of high-strength concrete
(HSC) cannot be realized fully in structures due to the
brittleness of the material and the serviceability prob-
lems associated with the resulting reduced cross-sec-
tional dimension. Addition of bers to high-strength con-
crete converts its brittleness into a more ductile behavior.
When concrete cracks, the randomly oriented bers
arrest both microcracking and its propagation, thus
improving strength and ductility. Addition of bers only
slightly inuences the ascending portion of the stress-
strain curve but leads to a noticeable increase in the peak
strain (strain at peak stress) and a signicant increase in
ductility [1,2].
Researches conducted on the exural behavior of ber
reinforced concrete (FRC) beams have been concen-
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +966-2-695-2488; fax: +966-2-695-
2179.
E-mail address: sashour@kaau.edu.sa (S.A. Ashour).
0141-0296/00/$ - see front matter 2000 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S0141- 0296( 99) 00052- 8
trated on the prediction of the ultimate exural strength
and the load deformation behavior in terms of various
material parameters [315]. Less attention was given to
the exural rigidity of FRC beams in the service load
range. Several methods have been proposed for calculat-
ing the deections of reinforced concrete exural mem-
bers subjected to short and long-term loadings [1620],
however, those methods deal mainly with nonbrous
concrete, and differences may exist for FRC beams.
The determination of short-term deection requires
the estimation of the moment of inertia, I, of the beam
which depends on the degree of cracking that has taken
place in the member. For loads below the cracking load,
computation of deection may be based on the gross
concrete section, I
g
. However, as the load increases
above the cracking load, the member will crack at dis-
crete intervals because the tensile strength of the con-
crete has been exceeded, and all tensile stress is carried
by the steel reinforcement. The neutral axis will uctuate
between cracks causing variation of the curvatures along
the member length and reducing the exural rigidity of
the section. The value of I changes along the beam span
1134 S.A. Ashour et al. / Engineering Structures 22 (2000) 11451158
Nomenclature
a Shear span
A
s
Area of longitudinal tension reinforcement
b Width of beam section
c Neutral axis depth from the top surface of the beam
d Effective depth
h Thickness of beam section
E
c
Modulus of elasticity of concrete
E
cf
Modulus of elasticity of concrete (with steel bers)
E
s
Modulus of elasticity of steel reinforcement
(E
c
.I
cr
)
exp
Experimental exural rigidity of the cracked section
f
c
Compressive strength of concrete (at 28 days)
f
r
Modulus of ruputre of concrete
f
sp
Splitting tensile strength of concrete
I
cr(exp)
Experimental moment of inertia of cracked transformed section
I
e
Effective moment of inertia
I
exp
Experimental moment of inertia
I
g
Moment of inertia of gross concrete section ignoring reinforcement
I
ut
Moment of inertia of untracked transformed section
l Clear span of beam
m Power in Bransons equation
M
a
Maximum bending moment in the span
M
cr(exp)
Experimental cracking moment
M
y(exp)
Experimental yield moment
M
u(exp)
Experimental ultimate moment carried by the section
V
f
Steel ber content
y
t
Distance from tensile bers to neutral axis
r Tension reinforcement ratio=A
s
/bd
Deection at mid span
from a maximum value of I
g
for the untracked (gross)
section to a minimum value of I
cr
for the fully cracked
(transformed) section. This variation of I along the span
length makes the deection calculation lengthy and tedi-
ous and makes the accurate determination of defor-
mation from the moment-curvaturerelationships in the
elastic range difcult. Hence, in a cracked member, it is
desirable to consider an effective moment of inertia, I
e
,
that will have a value between those derived by cracked
and untracked sections.
To provide a smooth transition between the moments
of inertia I
g
and I
cr
, the ACI Building Code [21] has
adopted since 1971, the expression developed by Bran-
son [18] for the computation of the effective moment of
inertia I
e
over the entire length of a simply supported
beam. ACI 318-95 [22] recommends the use of the fol-
lowing expression for the effective moment of inertia
I
e

M
cr
M
a

3
I
g

M
cr
M
a

I
cr
(1)
where M
a
=maximum moment in member at stage
deection is computed, kN.m; M
cr
=cracking moment of
beam=f
r
I
g
/y
t
, kN.m; f
r
=modulus of rupture; y
t
=neutral
axis depth from the bottom tension side of the beam.
The effective moment of inertia I
e
is estimated using Eq.
(1) when M
a
M
cr
; otherwise I
e
=I
g
.
The effect of concrete compressive strength, f
c
, and
tensile reinforcement ratio, r on the exural behaviour
of reinforced concrete beams has been investigated by
Ashour [23]. It has been found that exural rigidity
increases as f
c
increase. The exponent in Bransons equ-
ation Eq. (1) also increases as f
c
increases. This yields
a faster decay rate of the effective moment of inertia, I
e
,
from the untracked transformed moment of inertia, I
ut
,
to the fully cracked section, I
cr
, as M
a
/M
cr
increases
above one.
The inclusion of steel bers in high-strength concrete
beams enhances the arresting mechanism of crack propa-
gation and consequently enhances the effective moment
of inertia to be used in the deection calculation. The
effect of steel bers on the serviceability and ultimate
strength of reinforced high-strength concrete beam has
been reported by Ashour et al. [24]. The exponent in
Bransons equation was related to the amount of ber
content, and the exponent decreases as V
f
increases.
The objective of this research is to investigate the
1135 S.A. Ashour et al. / Engineering Structures 22 (2000) 11451158
Fig. 1. Details of test beams and testing arrangement.
1136 S.A. Ashour et al. / Engineering Structures 22 (2000) 11451158
Table 1
Concrete mix proportioning
Mix Mix W/C Super- Silica f
c
Designation Proportion Ratio plasticizer Fume (MPa)
C:FA:CA (%) (%)
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)
N 1:1:2 0.37 2 0 49
M 1:1.2:1.8 0.24 6 0 79
H 1:1:2 0.23 6 20 102
Table 2
Experimental modulus of elasticity, E
c
(MPa)
V
f
(%)
0.0 0.5 1.0
Mix Designation (1) (2) (3) (4)
N 24612 26823 30131
M 35443 37169 38247
H 38423 40241 41889
effect of concrete compressive strength, tensile
reinforcement ratio and steel ber content on the deec-
tion and strength of reinforced concrete beams. Modi-
cations to a previously proposed formula for the effec-
tive moment of inertia are presented.
Fig. 2. Compressive stress-strain diagram of concrete cylinders.
Fig. 3. Experimental secant modulus of concrete.
2. Experimental program
2.1. Test specimen
Twenty seven ber reinforced concrete beams were
tested in this investigation. All beams were singly
reinforced and provided with shear reinforcement except
at the constant moment zone. The variables were the
concrete compressive strength, f
c
, the steel ber content,
V
f
, and the longitudinal tensile reinforcement ratio, r.
The compressive strengths used were 49, 79 and 102
MPa, the ber contents were 0.0, 0.5 and 1.0% by vol-
1137 S.A. Ashour et al. / Engineering Structures 22 (2000) 11451158
Table 3
Mechanical properties of test beams
Beam (1) A
s
(2) r (%) (3) V
f
(%) (4) f
c
(MPa) (5) f
r
(MPa) (6) f
sp
(MPa) (7)
B-0.0-N2 218 1.18 0.0 48.61 5.64 3.69
B-0.5-N2 218 1.18 0.5 55.82 5.88 4.67
B-1.0-N2 218 1.18 1.0 65.16 7.95 6.72
B-0.0-N3 318 1.77 0.0 48.61 5.64 3.69
B-0.5-N3 318 1.77 0.5 55.82 5.88 4.67
B-1.0-N3 318 1.77 1.0 65.16 7.95 6.72
B-0.0-N4 418 2.37 0.0 48.61 5.64 3.69
B-0.5-N4 418 2.37 0.5 55.82 5.88 4.67
B-1.0-N4 418 2.37 1.0 65.16 7.95 6.72
B-0.0-M2 218 1.18 0.0 78.50 7.04 5.05
B-0.5-M2 218 1.18 0.5 81.99 7.24 6.01
B-1.0-M2 218 1.18 1.0 87.37 9.75 7.69
B-0.0-M3 318 1.77 0.0 78.50 7.04 5.05
B-0.5-M3 318 1.77 0.5 81.99 7.24 6.01
B-1.0-M3 318 1.77 1.0 87.37 9.75 7.69
B-0.0-M4 418 2.37 0.0 78.50 7.04 5.05
B-0.5-M4 418 2.37 0.5 81.99 7.24 6.01
B-1.0-M4 418 2.37 1.0 87.37 9.75 7.69
B-0.0-H2 218 1.18 0.0 102.40 9.36 5.59
B-0.5-H2 218 1.18 0.5 106.93 10.13 6.53
B-1.0-H2 218 1.18 1.0 111.44 11.23 8.13
B-0.0-H3 318 1.77 0.0 102.40 9.36 5.59
B-0.5-H3 318 1.77 0.5 106.91 10.13 6.53
B-1.0-H3 318 1.77 1.0 111.44 11.23 8.13
B-0.0-H4 418 2.37 0.0 102.40 9.36 5.59
B-0.5-H4 418 2.37 0.5 106.93 10.13 6.53
B-1.0-H4 418 2.37 1.0 111.44 11.23 8.13
ume, and the longitudinal tensile reinforcement ratios
used were 1.18, 1.77 and 2.37%.
Fig. 1 presents the detailed testing program. Each
beam is designated to indicate the ber content, com-
pressive strength level and amount of longitudinal
reinforcement. Thus, Beam B-1, 0-M3 represents a beam
with 1.0% ber content, medium compressive strength
of approximately 79 MPa, and three 18 mm diameter
steel bars that provide a reinforcement ratio of 1.77%.
2.2. Materials
Deformed steel bars having yield strength of 530 MPa
(76 800 psi) were used as exural reinforcements. Three
concrete mix proportions were used to provide the
required compressive strengths as presented in Table 1
Ordinary Portland cement (Type-I), desert sand with
a neness modules of 3.1, and coarse aggregate (crushed
basalt) of 10 mm (3/8 in.) maximum size were used.
Light gray densied microsilica (20% by weight of
cement) with a specic gravity of 2.2, a bulk density of
6.0 kN/m
3
(37.4 lb/ft
3
) and a specic surface of 2.3 m
2
/g
was used for the high-strength concrete mix (H).
Hooked-ends mild carbon steel bers with average
length of 60 mm (2.36 in.), nominal diameter of 0.8 mm
(0.03 in.), aspect ratio of 75 and yield strength of 1100
MPa (159 500 psi) were used. A superplasticizer was
used, and enough mixing time was allowed to produce
uniform mixing of concrete without any segregation.
Six 150300 mm (612 in.) cylinders were cast to
determine the concrete compressive and splitting tensile
strengths. Additionally, three 150150530 mm
(6621 in.) prisms were cast to determine the modulus
of rupture of the concrete used. The concrete was placed
in three layers and was vibrated internally and externally
immediately afterward. All beams and control specimens
were cast and cured under similar conditions. The beams
and specimens were kept covered with polyethylene
sheets for 28 days until 24 hours before testing.
2.3. Test procedure
The test beams were simply supported and were sub-
jected to two-point loads as shown in Fig. 1. The dis-
tance between the two loading points was kept constant
at 500 mm (20 in.). The beam midspan deection and the
end rotation were measured with the help of transducers.
Strains in the tensile steel were measured by electrical
foil-type strain gages. Compressive strains at the center
of the top surface of the concrete at three locations were
measured with electrical resistance wire-type strain
gages. These gages were located in the constant moment
zone at midspan. The load was applied in 25 to 35
increments up to failure by means of a 400 kN (90 kips)
1138 S.A. Ashour et al. / Engineering Structures 22 (2000) 11451158
hydraulic testing machine. At the end of each load
increment, observations and measurements were
recorded for the midspan deection, end rotation, strain
gage readings, and crack development and propagation
on the beam surfaces.
Fig. 4. Mechanical properties of test beams (a) Concrete compressive
strength, f
c
; (b) Modulus of rupture, f
r
; (c) Splitting tensile strength,
f
sp
.
3. Experimental results
3.1. Compressive stress-strain diagram
Fig. 2 shows the stress-strain diagram of 150300
concrete cylinder tested in compression. The effect of
steel bers is obvious on the stress-strain diagram
especially for the lower strength concrete (f
c
=49 MPa).
As the ber content increases the maximum compressive
strength increases slightly, and the slope of the ascend-
ing portion increases accordingly. The ascending part of
the high-strength concrete (f
c
=102 MPa) is almost a
straight line up to the maximum compressive strength.
The concrete secant modulus, E
c
, was evaluated at a
stress level of 0.5 f
c
and is given in Table 2 and Fig.
3. The secant modulus of concrete, E
c
, is increased as
V
f
and f
c
increase. The increase of the ber contents
from 0.0 to 1.0% increases E
c
by 22.4, 7.9 and 9.0% for
concrete with f
c
of 49, 79 and 102 MPa, respectively.
Table 3 and Fig. 4 present the mechanical properties
of the FRC used in the test beams. The increase of the
ber contents from 0.0 to 1.0% increases the compress-
ive strength by 34.0, 11.3 and 8.8%, increases the modu-
lus of rupture by 41.0, 38.5 and 20.0%, and increases
the splitting tensile strength by 82.1, 52.3 and 45.4% for
concrete with 49, 79 and 102 MPa compressive
strengths, respectively.
3.2. Flexural behavior
The test beams were designed to fail in exure. All
beams exhibited vertical exural cracks in the constant-
moment region before nal failure of the beams due to
crushing of concrete. The presence of bers reduced the
crack width, increased the number of cracks, increased
the ductility, and delayed the nal crushing of concrete.
The effectiveness of steel bers in arresting cracks is
related to the average spacing of bers inside the matrix.
The spatial distribution and orientation of bers in FRC
beams are random, however, boundary conditions such
as edges constrain the ber orientation in a uni-direc-
tional alignment.
Fig. 5 shows the load versus deection relationships
for all test beams. The test results clearly show the bers
contribution on the stiffnesses and strengths of all
beams. The bers have a clear enhancement of the post
cracking stiffness and ductility (area under P- curve)
for all beams.
Table 4 presents the experimental cracking moment,
M
cr(exp)
, the moment at rst yielding of the exural
reinforcement, M
y(exp)
, and the ultimate moment, M
u(exp)
,
of the test beams. Test results show that the increase of
V
f
increase M
cr(exp)
, M
y(exp)
, and M
u(exp)
, for all test beams
irrespective to the f
c
and r values. However, the
increase due to the presence of bers is reduced as r
increases.
1139 S.A. Ashour et al. / Engineering Structures 22 (2000) 11451158
Fig. 5. Load deection curves for beams.
The additional moment enhancement at ultimate stage
due to the presence of steel ber, M
f
, can be estimated
as the difference between the ultimate moments of
beams with V
f
of 0.0 and 1.0%, and are shown in Table
5 and Fig. 6. The gure shows that the increase of f
c
increases M
f
, however, a lower rate of increase is noticed
when f
c
increases from 79 to 102 MPa. Fig. 6 also
shows that the value of r has no effect on M
f
. The
enhancement of the exural capacities varies between
7.52 and 26.43%.
3.3. Cracking moment
The analytical evaluation of deection depends gre-
atly on the cracking moment of the beam. The theoretical
cracking moment M
cr(th)
is estimated as:
M
cr(th)

f
r
I
g
y
t
(2)
The use of the untracked transformed moment of iner-
tia, I
ut
, instead of I
g
in Eq. (2) will give a better predic-
tion of M
cr(th)
, Fig. 7 shows the variation of M
cr(exp)
/M
cr(th)
ratio as a function of ber content and concrete com-
pressive strength for the different reinforcement ratios.
The gure shows that the experimental cracking
moments are about 55 to 85% of the theoretical cracking
moments calculated using the modulus of rupture values.
Thus, the use of f
r
, to calculate the cracking moment Eq.
(2) overestimated the experimental cracking moments,
and this overestimation increases as the concrete com-
pressive strength increases. This is attributed to the size
effect phenomena. For normal and medium concrete
strengths, the value of M
cr(exp)
/M
cr(th)
ratio increases as
V
f
increases from 0.0 to 0.5%, and thereafter decreases
as V
f
increases to 1.0%.
3.4. Neutral axis depth
The experimental neutral axis depth, c, of the test
beams is obtained from the experimentally measured
strain values in the concrete and the tensile reinforce-
ment. The variation of the ratio of c to the effective depth
of the section, d, in the constant moment zone is shown
in Fig. 8. For loading levels below the cracking load,
M
a
/M
cr
=1, the c/d ratio is about 0.6. When cracks
occurred, the neutral axis shifted upward and the c/d
value drops to a value of about 0.4 and remains constant
1140 S.A. Ashour et al. / Engineering Structures 22 (2000) 11451158
Table 4
Experimental and theoretical results of test beams
Beam (1) M
cr(exp)
(kN- M
y(exp)
(kN- M
u(exp)
(kN- I
cr(exp)
I
cr(th)
(E
c
.I
cr
)
exp
m (8) c/d
(th)
(9) c/d
(exp)
(10)
m) (2) m) (3) m) (4) (mm
4
10
3
) (mm
4
10
3
) (10
9
N-
(5) (6) mm
2
) (7)
B-0.0-N2 8.02 50.29 58.17 103.14 110.81 2.54 1.96 0.355 0.290
B-0.5-N2 9.39 54.47 60.17 94.84 104.14 2.54 1.97 0.343 0.331
B-1.0-N2 9.61 60.27 64.50 98.22 95.34 2.96 1.49 0.328 0.326
B-0.0-N3 8.64 74.40 77.08 126.78 147.51 3.12 1.55 0.415 0.359
B-0.5-N3 9.92 74.85 83.8 117.67 139.07 3.16 1.56 0.402 0.392
B-1.0-N3 11.51 86.35 87.72 119.38 128.25 3.60 1.10 0.385 0.390
B-0.0-N4 9.82 94.06 98.37 153.08 178.28 3.77 1.19 0.460 0.384
B-0.5-N4 11.29 101.22 103.98 135.30 168.67 3.63 1.34 0.447 0.423
B-1.0-N4 11.51 105.04 105.77 96.48 135.16 2.91 0.88 0.428 0.441
B-0.0-M2 8.97 49.51 55.27 77.09 84.23 2.73 2.36 0.307 0.246
B-0.5-M2 9.82 56.58 63.34 76.38 81.09 2.84 2.37 0.301 0.247
B-1.0-M2 11.51 65.13 69.88 78.90 79.40 3.02 1.61 0.298 0.355
B-0.0-M3 9.81 75.16 80.86 86.91 114.15 3.08 2.14 0.361 0.312
B-0.5-M3 10.97 80.97 89.62 98.85 110.30 3.67 2.03 0.355 0.348
B-1.0-M3 11.82 86.77 92.05 105.22 108.73 4.02 1.34 0.351 0.380
B-0.0-M4 10.56 97.44 103.77 108.81 138.94 3.86 1.72 0.403 0.362
B-0.5-M4 12.56 109.36 113.59 114.80 135.54 4.27 1.52 0.396 0.385
B-1.0-M4 13.67 113.48 115.70 104.79 132.74 4.01 1.19 0.392 0.402
B-0.0-H2 9.18 48.56 55.89 75.21 82.48 2.89 3.23 0.297 0.226
B-0.5-H2 10.77 58.27 62.60 70.75 77.08 2.85 2.5 0.292 0.259
B-1.0-H2 11.82 68.93 69.25 73.49 73.96 3.08 1.96 0.287 0.292
B-0.0-H3 10.35 77.48 82.76 82.71 109.12 3.18 2.13 0.350 0.308
B-0.5-H3 11.54 84.35 89.84 91.00 104.01 3.66 2.43 0.344 0.348
B-1.0-H3 13.20 91.31 95.64 85.67 100.96 3.59 1.84 0.338 0.333
B-0.0-H4 11.82 100.91 108.10 100.31 132.31 3.85 1.85 0.391 0.344
B-0.5-H4 12.77 107.78 114.96 108.84 128.07 4.38 1.52 0.385 0.356
B-1.0-H4 14.78 113.38 120.61 107.81 124.48 4.52 1.91 0.379 0.338
Table 5
Moment enhancement due to bers addition (%)
Concrete compression strength
r (%) N M H
1.18 10.88 26.43 23.90
1.77 13.8 13.84 15.56
2.37 7.52 11.50 11.57
upto the yielding of the reinforcement. Some uctuations
of the c/d values took place at low level of loading due
to the sensitivity of the strain gage readings specially
before cracking. It is noticed that the value of c does
not vary between the cracking and yielding levels. For
a specic level of loading, M
a
/M
cr
, the neutral axis depth
is larger for the lower compressive strength, irrespective
of the amount of exural reinforcement. The c value
increases as V
f
increases, and this is attributed to the
decrease in curvature of the beam, and also due to that
the bers bridge the cracks and reduce crack width
which in turn reduce the strain in the tension zone. The
theoretical depth of the neutral axis can be obtained from
the statistical moment given by:
Fig. 6. Fiber contribution in moment enhancement.
bc
2
2
nA
s
(dc)
2
0 (3)
Table 4 gives the theoretical and experimental c/d values
for the tested beams. The theoretical values generally
underestimated the experimental values, however, for
beams with 1.0% ber content the theoretical c/d values
overestimate slightly the experimental values.
1141 S.A. Ashour et al. / Engineering Structures 22 (2000) 11451158
Fig. 7. Ratio of experimental to theoretical cracking moment.
3.5. Experimental moment of inertia
Based on the elastic deformation theory, the experi-
mental moment of inertia of a simply supported beam
subjected to a two-points load is obtained as:
I
exp

Pa(3l
2
4a
2
)
48E
c

exp
(4)
where; P=applied load; a=shear arm; l=clear span of the
beam;
exp
=experimental midspan deection; E
c
=experi-
mental secant modulus of elasticity of concrete.
However, as shown in Fig. 2 the value of E
c
varies
as a function of load level, therefore it is more appropri-
ate to consider the effect of the f
c
, r and V
f
on the ex-
ural rigidity, (E
c
.I)
exp
, of the beam rather than consider-
ing the experimental moment of inertia, I
exp
, alone. Fig.
9 shows the variation of (E
c
.I)
exp
obtained using Eq. (4)
as a function of level of loading, M
a
/M
cr
. In general, the
exural rigidity increases with the increase of the ber
content.
The effect of concrete strength on the experimental
exural rigidity is shown in Fig. 10. For beams with no
bers, f
c
has very little effect on (E
c
.I)
exp
, however, for
beams with bers, f
c
has a signicant inuence
especially for beams with high r, The test results show
that the higher the exural reinforcement ratio, the
higher the exural rigidity and the lesser the rate of tran-
sition of the exural rigidity from the uncracked to fully
cracked section values. This suggests that the exponent
in Bransons equation Eq. (1) is inversely proportional
to r, which supports the conclusion by Al-Sheikh et al.
[26] that the exponent of 3 in Bransons equation should
be reduced as r increases.
3.6. Cracked moment of inertia
The value of I
exp
is assumed to approach I
cr(exp)
when
the applied moment approaches M
y
, which is a realistic
assumption [25]. At that level of loading, the M
cr
/M
a
ratio is quite small and the contribution of I
g
in Eq. (1)
is negligible. The calculation of deection during the
service stage of a structure depends mainly on the
cracked moment of inertia, I
cr
. The experimental cracked
moment of inertia is obtained by considering:
I
cr(exp)

P
y
a(3l
2
4a
2
)
48E
c

exp
(5)
where P
y
=the load that causes yielding in the steel
reinforcement.
The values of I
cr(exp)
and (E
c
I
cr
)
exp
, are calculated using
Eq. (5) and are presented in Table 4. The value of I
cr(exp)
decreases as V
f
increases, however, the value of (E
c
I
cr
)
exp
increases as V
f
increases.
3.7. Modication of Bransons equation
In the evaluation of the deection of the test beams,
the determination of M
cr
, E
c
, and I
cr
, are the required
parameters in calculating Eq. (1). These parameters con-
trol the serviceability and deection calculation.
Al-Sheikh et al. [26] proposed the following formula
to include the effect of reinforcement ratio in Bransons
equation [18]:
I
e

M
cr
M
a

m
I
g

M
cr
M
a

I
cr
(6)
where m=30.8r.
1142 S.A. Ashour et al. / Engineering Structures 22 (2000) 11451158
Fig. 8. Behavior of neutral axis depth.
Eq. (6) was based on beams with 33 MPa concrete
compressive strength. Ashour [23] showed that the tran-
sition rate of I
e
from I
g
to I
cr
drops quicker as f
c
increases, and proposed a modication on Bransons
equation to consider the effect of f
c
as:
m30.8r

33
f
c
(7)
where f
c
33 MPa.
The experimental variation of the exponent m in Eq.
(6) as a function of the level of loading, M
a
/M
cr
, can be
evaluated by replacing I
e
and I
g
by the values of I
exp
and
I
ut
respectively:
m
log

I
exp
I
cr(exp)
I
ut
I
cr(exp)

log

M
cr(exp)
M
a

(8)
The variation of m obtained from Eq. (8) as a function
of M
a
/M
cr
, is shown in Fig. 11 for all test beams. In
general, the value of m increases as f
c
increases and V
f
and r decrease.
Fig. 11 shows that the value of m for each test beam
has an almost constant value for level of loadings M
a
/M
cr
between 1.5 to 6.0. The experimental average value of
m obtained for each beam within this range of level of
loading is given in Table 4.
Based on the test results, a regression analysis is per-
formed and an empirical formula that incorporates the
considered variables (r, f
c
and V
f
) in the expression of
m is proposed as:
m
30.8r

33
f
c
1+0.4V
f
(9)
For beams with no bers and with 33 MPa compress-
ive strength, Eq. (9) is reduced to Eq. (6).
The deection calculation requires the determination
of other factrors such as M
cr
, E
c
and I
cr
. The variations
of the secant modulus of concrete in terms of f
c
and V
f
are given in Fig. 12. Based on regression analysis, the
secant modulus of FRC, E
cf
, in terms of the that of plain
concrete, E
co
is given as:
E
cf
E
co
(1600(
V
f
f
c
)
2
) (10)
1143 S.A. Ashour et al. / Engineering Structures 22 (2000) 11451158
Fig. 9. Experimental exural rigidity as a function of V
f
.
where E
co
for high-strength concrete is given as [27]:
E
co
3200f
c
6900 (11)
Eqs. (10) and (11) are presented in Fig. 12. The equa-
tions give good estimation of the experimental values,
however, the equations overestimate the value for nor-
mal strenth concrete. As discussed earlier and shown in
Fig. 7, the ratio of M
cr(exp)
/M
cr(th)
are about 55 to 85%.
Thus the use of f
r
to calculate the cracking moment Eq.
(2) overestimated the experimental values. Thus a
reduced value of f
r
should be used to predict with reason-
able accuracy the beam deection:
M
cr(th)

0.6f
r
I
g
Y
t
(12)
Ashour [23] proposed an equation to predict the theoreti-
cal cracked moment of inertia and is given as:
I
cr(th)
I
cr
[1.1290.0011f
c
0.0133r] (13)
where I
cr
is the cracked moment of inertia and is
given by:
I
cr

bc
3
3
nA
s
(dc)
2
(14)
where n=E
s
/E
cf
and c is the neutral axis depth.
The predicted deections of the test beams are evalu-
ated in terms of m (Eq. (9)), M
cr
(Eq. (12)) and I
cr
(Eq.
(13)), and the values are presented in Fig. 13. The gure
shows that the predicted deections give good estimation
of the experimental values.
4. Conclusions
Based on the test results of twenty seven reinforced
concrete beams tested in exure, the following con-
clusions are drawn:
1. The presence of steel bers reduces the crack propa-
gation in the tested beams.
2. The exural rigidity increases as f
c
and V
f
increases.
3. The increase of the ber content increase the crack-
ing, the yielding and the ultimate moments.
4. The predicted cracking moments estimated in terms
of the modulus of rupture overestimated the experi-
mental values.
5. Additional moment strength due to the presence of
bers is almost independent of the amount of
reinforcement, r. However, this additional moment is
proportional to concrete compressive strength, f
c
.
1144 S.A. Ashour et al. / Engineering Structures 22 (2000) 11451158
Fig. 10. Experimental exural rigidity as a function of f
c
.
Fig. 12. Theoretical secant modulus of concrete.
6. The rate of decay of the beam effective moment of
inertia from the untracked transformed to a fully
cracked section is lower for beams with bers than
that of beams with no bers.
7. The exponent, m, in Bransons equation decreases as
V
f
increases, however, it increases as f
c
increases.
1145 S.A. Ashour et al. / Engineering Structures 22 (2000) 11451158
Fig. 11. Variation of exponent, m, in Eq. (7).
Fig. 13. Prediction of deection for some test beams.
1146 S.A. Ashour et al. / Engineering Structures 22 (2000) 11451158
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