Some Mooted Questions in Reinforced Concrete Design | Page 7

deflection does not play much of a part in the design of beams. Sometimes, however, the passing requirement of a certain floor construction is the amount of deflection under a given load. Professor Gaetano Lanza has given some data on recorded deflections of reinforced concrete beams.[B] He has also worked out the theoretical deflections on various assumptions. An attempt to reconcile the observed deflections with one of several methods of calculating stresses led him to the conclusion that:
"The observations made thus far are not sufficient to furnish the means for determining the actual distribution of the stresses, and hence for the deduction of reliable formul? for the computation of the direct stresses, shearing stresses, diagonal stresses, deflections, position of the neutral axis, etc., under a given load."
Professor Lanza might have gone further and said that the observations made thus far are sufficient to show the hopelessness of deriving a formula that will predict accurately the deflection of a reinforced concrete beam. The wide variation shown by two beam tests cited by him, in which the beams were identical, is, in itself, proof of this.
Taking the data of these tests, and working out the modulus of elasticity from the recorded deflections, as though the beams were of plain concrete, values are found for this modulus which are not out of agreement with the value of that variable modulus as determined by other means. Therefore, if the beams be considered as plain concrete beams, and an average value be assumed for the modulus or coefficient of elasticity, a deflection may be found by a simple calculation which is an average of that which may be expected. Here again, simple theory is better than complex, because of the ease with which it may be applied, and because it gives results which are just as reliable.
The thirteenth point concerns the elastic theory as applied to a reinforced concrete arch. This theory treats a reinforced concrete arch as a spring. In order to justify its use, the arch or spring is considered as having fixed ends. The results obtained by the intricate methods of the elastic theory and the simple method of the equilibrium polygon, are too nearly identical to justify the former when the arch is taken as hinged at the ends.
The assumption of fixed ends in an arch is a most extravagant one, because it means that the abutments must be rigid, that is, capable of taking bending moments. Rigidity in an abutment is only effected by a large increase in bulk, whereas strength in an arch ring is greatly augmented by the addition of a few inches to its thickness. By the elastic theory, the arch ring does not appear to need as much strength as by the other method, but additional stability is needed in the abutments in order to take the bending moments. This latter feature is not dwelt on by the elastic theorists.
In the ordinary arch, the criterion by which the size of abutment is gauged, is the location of the line of pressure. It is difficult and expensive to obtain depth enough in the base of the abutment to keep this line within the middle third, when only the thrust of the arch is considered. If, in addition to the thrust, there is a bending moment which, for many conditions of loading, further displaces the line of pressure toward the critical edge, the difficulty and expense are increased. It cannot be gainsaid that a few cubic yards of concrete added to the ring of an arch will go much further toward strengthening the arch than the same amount of concrete added to the two abutments.
In reinforced concrete there are ample grounds for the contention that the carrying out of a nice theory, based on nice assumptions and the exact determination of ideal stresses, is of far less importance than the building of a structure which is, in every way, capable of performing its function. There are more than ample grounds for the contention that the ideal stresses worked out for a reinforced concrete structure are far from realization in this far from ideal material.
Apart from the objection that the elastic theory, instead of showing economy by cutting down the thickness of the arch ring, would show the very opposite if fully carried out, there are objections of greater weight, objections which strike at the very foundation of the theory as applied to reinforced concrete. In the elastic theory, as in the intricate beam theory commonly used, there is the assumption of an initial unstressed condition of the materials. This is not true of a beam and is still further from the truth in the case of an arch. Besides shrinkage of the concrete, which always produces unknown initial stresses, there is a still more potent cause of initial