BEAMS REINFORCED FOR

COMPRESSION

Objectives:
The students must be able to:
Explain the importance of using
compression steel in beams.
Compare a beam reinforced for tension
only and a beam reinforced for
compression.
Design a beam reinforced for
compression.
Practice cooperation in the assigned
group activity.

 Compression Steel is thought to be

uneconomical, but on occasional
situations, its use is advantageous.
Compression steel will permit the use of
appreciably smaller beams than those that
make use of tensile steel only.
Reduced sizes can be very important where
space or architectural requirements limit the
sizes of beam.
Compression steel is quite helpful in reducing
long-term deflections, and such steel is useful in
positioning stirrups or shear reinforcing.

 Should the compression side of the beam be

reinforced, the long term stresses in that reinforcing
will be greatly affected by creep in the concrete.
As time goes by, the compression concrete will
compact more tightly, leaving the reinforcing bars to
carry more and more of the load.
As a consequence of this creep in the concrete, the
stresses in the compression bars are assumed to
double as time goes by.
The transformed area of the compression bars is
assumed to equal 2n times their area As.

 On the subject of hair splitting, it is noted that the

compression side equals the gross compression
area of the concrete plus 2nAs minus the area of
the holes in the concrete (1As) which
theoretically should not have been included in the
concrete part.
This equals the compression concrete area plus (2n1)As.
Similarly, 2n-1 is used in the moment of inertia
calculations.
The stresses in compression bars are determined by
multiplying 2n times stresses in the concrete located
at same distance from NA.

 In the design of doubly reinforced

beams, it is assumed that the resisting
moment is divided into two stages.
One is the resisting moment of the beam
section assuming that there is no
compressive reinforcement.
The second is a couple formed by the
additional compressive force in the
compression steel and the tensile force in
a proportional amount of additional
tension steel.

CONSIDERING FIRST STAGE:

STAGE:
1
M1 = C jd

C =

1
2
M1 = fc k j b d
2
M = T j d
T
1

M1 = As 1 fs j d
As 1 =

M1
fs j d

fc b k d

2
(resisting moment)
= As fs
1

CONSIDERING SECOND
M2
M2
M2

=
=
=

(excess moment)

M1

T2 ( d

d' )

As 2 fs ( d

d' )

As 2 =

M2
fs ( d

As = As 1

d' )
(total area in tension)

As 2

M 2 = C1 ( d

d' )

M 2 = As' fs' ( d

d' )

M2

As' =

fs' ( d

d' )

by ratio and proportion from stress

diagram:

fs'
2 n
k d

fs
n

=
d'

k d

2 fs ( kd d' )
=
fs'
d k d
when fs is greater than fs, use fs = fs.

Sample Problem:
A rectangular beam carrying a uniform load of 26
kN/m including its own weight is limited in cross
section to 300 mm x 500 mm. The beam is simply
supported in a span of 6 meters. Using fc = 7
MPa, fs = 124 MPa, n = 12, design the beam.
Allow 65 mm covering for steel bars.