Building Construction

3. Concrete and Steel Construction

CE 2330
Civil Engineering Materials and Construction

Structural Elements
Foundation isolated and combined
footings, rafts, piles etc.
Columns
Beams
Slabs

Construction with concrete

Concrete weak in tension, good in
compression
Steel used for reinforcing provides load
carrying capacity to tensile zones
Why steel?
Other modern reinforcement options
fibre reinforced plastic (FRP)

Concrete construction in India

Reinforced cement concrete (RCC) most
popular construction material (Why??)
Concrete can be site-mixed or supplied
from central mixing plants by ready mix
concrete trucks
In India, most concrete is still site mixed
Labour intensive construction
Volume batching still prevalent

Site mixing

RMC

Can you state some advantages and disadvantages of RMC over sitemixed concrete??

For large projects

Batching plants are set up and

concrete is conveyed using
conveyor belts / hoppers /
trucks

Critical aspects of concrete

construction

Reinforcement detailing
Formwork design
Concrete mixture design
Conveyance of concrete, placement,
compaction, finishing and curing

Reinforcement detailing

Most critical aspect from design and performance perspective

Detailed structural analysis - followed by design
Rebar diameter and spacing
Provision of cover (use of cover blocks)

Formwork design

- Formwork should be able to support the pressure from concrete before it

hardens
- Should be easy to assemble and dissemble
- Popular materials steel, wood, aluminium, plastic etc. (some combined
systems also available)

Concrete mixture design

Concrete is designed to get a required
(compressive) strength and workability
Strength specified by structural designer
Workability specified by construction
(site) engineer
Volume batching vs. weigh batching
Durability of concrete

Concreting operations

..contd

..contd

Building with steel

Excellent tensile strength and ductility
make steel a top building material
Can carry enormous compressive loads
too
Steel elements are factory made so
quality is good
Expensive!
Requires skilled manpower

Steel construction
In India, steel construction is only favoured
for industrial buildings (factories /
workshops etc.) Why is it so?
Preformed segments are assembled at the
construction site
Most critical factor connections!
Welds, rivets, bolts etc.

Steel sections

Conventional steel construction

Curved steel

Steel systems for skyscrapers

Connections

Steel concrete composites

Can combine the response of steel and
concrete in compression hollow steel
tubes filled with concrete
Presence of concrete increases resistance
against buckling
Steel confinement around concrete
increases load carrying capacity

Prestressed concrete
Cheating concrete to
believe that it is not
experiencing any
tension!
Pre-compression
applied to concrete
overcomes tensile
stresses due to loading

Types of prestressing
Transfer of compressive stress
to concrete is by steel (high
strength strands)
If strands are stressed before
pouring concrete pretensioning
If strands are stressed after
concrete has gained sufficient
strength post-tensioning (in
this case, concrete is cast with a
duct)

Pre-tensioning

Post-tensioning

References
Various web sources