Reinforced Concrete Design for Strength and Deformability

A method of design is developed for reinforced concrete flexural frameworks wherein strength and deformability criteria are simultaneously satisfied at the specified service and ultimate design load levels. A limit design approach is adopted, and the required design moment capacities are found accounting for the same measure of plastic adaptability of reinforced concrete as that recognized by the ultimate strength design method for proportioning sections. The design solution comprises the set of cross-sectional dimensions and steel percentages for which the members have sufficient post-yielding moment and rotation capacities at the ultimate design load level while ensuring that deflections and stresses and strains are within acceptable limits at the service design load level. An example continuous beam is designed by the method to have minimum cost of concrete and steel.