Effect of loading types and reinforcement ratio on an effective moment

of inertia and deection of a reinforced concrete beam

Ilker Fatih Kara
a
, Cengiz Dundar
b,
*
a
Department of Civil Engineering, Nigde University, 51235 Nigde, Turkey
b
Department of Civil Engineering, Cukurova University, 01330 Adana, Turkey
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 4 August 2008
Received in revised form 23 December 2008
Accepted 24 January 2009
Available online 27 February 2009
Keywords:
Reinforced concrete
Effective moment of inertia
Effective shear modulus
Deections
Loads
a b s t r a c t
In the design of reinforced concrete structures, a designer must satisfy not only the strength require-
ments but also the serviceability requirements, and therefore the control of the deformation becomes
more important. To ensure serviceability criterion, it is necessary to accurately predict the cracking
and deection of reinforced concrete structures under service loads. For accurate determination of the
member deections, cracked members in the reinforced concrete structures need to be identied and
their effective exural and shear rigidities determined. The effect of concrete cracking on the stiffness
of a exural member is largely dependent on both the magnitude and shape of the moment diagram,
which is related to the type of applied loading. In the present study, the effects of the loading types
and the reinforcement ratio on the exural stiffness of beams has been investigated by using the com-
puter program developed for the analysis of reinforced concrete frames with members in cracked state.
In the program, the variation of the exural stiffness of a cracked member has been obtained by using ACI,
CEB and probability-based effective stiffness model. Shear deformation effect is also taken into account in
the analysis and the variation of shear stiffness in the cracked regions of members has been considered by
employing reduced shear stiffness model available in the literature. Comparisons of the different models
for the effective moment of inertia have been made with the reinforced concrete test beams. The effect of
shear deformation on the total deection of reinforced concrete beams has also been investigated, and
the contribution of shear deformation to the total deection of beam have been theoretically obtained
in the case of various loading case by using the developed computer program. The applicability of the
proposed analytical procedure to the beams under different loading conditions has been tested by a com-
parison of the analytical and experimental results, and the analytical results have been found in good
agreement with the test results.
2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Reinforced concrete members crack at relatively low load level
even with presence of reinforcement because of the very low ten-
sile strength of concrete. The crack initiation and propagation is
highly load dependent and have a signicant effect on the stiffness
and hence displacement of reinforced concrete structures. The ten-
sile cracking of concrete reduces the exural and shear stiffness of
members and thus results in an increase in the deection of rein-
forced concrete members.
In recent years, the serviceability of reinforced concrete struc-
tures has become a much more important design consideration
with the use of high strength steel and concrete coupled with more
accurate and efcient analytical procedures that enabled practicing
engineers to satisfy ultimate state requirements with more slender
but more highly stressed structural members. When designing
reinforced concrete structures, a designer must satisfy not only
the strength requirements but also the serviceability requirements,
and therefore the control of the deformation is important to ensure
serviceability criterion. For accurate determination of member
deection, the prediction of exural and shear stiffness of mem-
bers after cracking becomes important. Therefore, an analytical
model which can include the effects of nonlinearity due to the con-
crete cracking on the exural and shear stiffness of the members
and accurately assess the deections would be very useful.
Deections of reinforced concrete exural members have been
the focus of several research activities in the past decades, and as
a consequent, various methods have been developed for predicting
them under short-term deection [14]. For calculating the deec-
tion of reinforced concrete members under working load, an empir-
ical expression for the effective moment of inertia developed by
Branson [5] is perhaps the most widely used, and various form of
Branson formula can be found in the ACI [6] and AS 36001994 [7].
0965-9978/$ - see front matter 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.advengsoft.2009.01.009
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +90 0322 3386762; fax: +90 322 3386702.
E-mail address: dundar@cu.edu.tr (C. Dundar).
Advances in Engineering Software 40 (2009) 836846
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
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j our nal homepage: www. el sevi er . com/ l ocat e/ advengsof t
Several methods are available in the technical literature for com-
puting the deections in reinforced concrete structures, consider-
ing the nonlinear effects of concrete cracking [8,9]. These
methods take into account the constitutive relationships of both
steel and concrete together with the bondslip relationship. Due
to the complexities of the actual behavior of reinforced concrete
members and the cumbersome computations to be performed,
these procedures can not be easily adopted by the design engineers.
Cosenza [10] developed an analytical procedure for the nite
element analysis of reinforced concrete beams in a cracked state.
The momentcurvature relationship models, such as linear ten-
sion stiffening, constant tension stiffening, ACI [6] and CEB [11]
models, which include the contribution of tensile resistance of
concrete to exural rigidities, were considered in the analysis.
In obtaining the exibility inuence coefcients, simply sup-
ported beam elements with uniformly distributed load was used.
Also the variation of shear rigidity due to cracking was not con-
sidered in the formulation. However shear deformation can be
large and signicant after the development of cracks. Therefore,
reduction of shear rigidity due to cracking should be included
in the analysis for improving results of the analysis and obtaining
more accurate results.
A model for estimating the effective moment of inertia of
cracked member was developed to account for the load type by
considering the variation in the cracked length, dened as the
length of the beam segment over which working moment exceeds
the cracking moment [12]. This procedure forms the basis and a
rotational approach to take into account some variable affecting
the effective moment of inertia.
A probability-based effective stiffness model was also devel-
oped for predicting the effective stiffness of reinforced concrete
exural members under service load conditions [13,14]. The effects
of load types and reinforcement ratios on the exural stiffness
characteristics of the beams were investigated, but the compari-
sons of the experimental and theoretical deections of beams were
not included in the study. However shear deformation effect,
which can be large and signicant following crack developments
and therefore be of practical importance in the design, was not
considered in the analysis.
There are many factors affecting the short-term deection of a
reinforced concrete exural member. These factors involve the
span length, end constraints, material and sectional properties,
magnitude and distribution of loads, and the ratio of reinforce-
ment. The most signicant effect on the reduction of the exural
stiffness of members in the serviceability loading range is the load-
ing type effect, which is believed to be one of the dominant factors
controlling the cracking behavior.
In the present study, the effect of loading type and reinforce-
ment ratio on the exural stiffness of beams has been investigated
by using the computer program, based on the iterative analytical
procedure, developed for the analysis of reinforced concrete frames
with members in cracked state. In the program, the variation of the
exural stiffness of a cracked member has been evaluated by using
ACI, CEB and probability-based effective stiffness model. Shear
deformation effect is also taken into account in the analysis and
the variation of shear stiffness in the cracked regions of members
has been considered by employing reduced shear stiffness model
available in the literature. Comparisons of various models for the
effective moment of inertia have been made with the results of
the simply supported test beams. The effect of shear deformation
on the total deection of reinforced concrete beams has been
investigated, and the contribution of shear deformation to the total
deection of beam have been theoretically obtained in the case of
various loading case by using the developed computer program.
The inuence of reinforcement ratio on the exural stiffness of
beams has also been discussed in the present study. The numerical
solution of the analytical procedure is carried out by using the stiff-
ness matrix method, and the cracked member stiffness equation is
obtained, including the uniformly distributed and point loads on
the member. In the evaluation of the exibility inuence coef-
cient, a cantilever beam model is used which greatly simplies
the integral equation. Verication of the analytical procedure has
been presented by the experimental results of simply supported
beams subjected to various loading types, and the statically inde-
terminate beams.
2. Models used for the effective moment of inertia of a cracked
member
Different models for the effective moment of inertia which in-
clude the effect of cracking and participation of tensile concrete be-
tween cracks, called tension stiffening, have been proposed to
dene the effective exural behavior of reinforced concrete
cracked section. In the ACI model based on the Bronson studies
[1] the effective moment of inertia is given in the following form:
I
eff

M
cr
M
_ _
m
I
1
1
M
cr
M
_ _
m
_ _
I
2
; for M PM
cr
1a
I
eff
I
1
; for M < M
cr
1b
where m = 3. In the CEB model I
eff
is also dened as
I
eff
b
1
b
2
M
cr
M
_ _
2
1
I
1
1 b
1
b
2
M
cr
M
_ _
2
_ _
1
I
2
_ _
1
; for M PM
cr
2a
I
eff
I
1
; for M < M
cr
2b
in which b
1
is the coefcient representing the quality of the rein-
forcing bars; b
1
= 1 for high bond reinforcement and 0.5 for plain
bars. b
2
is the coefcient characterizing the inuence of the dura-
tion or repetition of loading; b
2
= 1 for the rst loading and 0.5 for
the loads applied in a sustained manner or in a large number of load
cycles [15].
In Eqs. (1) and (2), I
1
and I
2
are the moments of inertia of the
gross uncracked section which accounts for the reinforcing steel
to the stiffness, and the cracked transformed section, respectively,
M is the bending moment, M
cr
is the moment corresponding to
exural cracking considered. The cracking moment, M
cr
is com-
puted by the program using the following equation:
M
cr

f
r
r
v
I
1
y
t
3
where f
r
is the exural tensile strength of concrete, y
t
is the dis-
tance from centroid of gross section to extreme ber in tension
and r
v
is the axial compressive stress, especially for beam case
r
v
= 0.
In present study, the probability-based effective stiffness model
has also been considered for the effective moment of inertia of a
cracked member. In the probability-based effective stiffness model,
which considers the cracking of concrete with the stiffness reduc-
tion in the reinforced concrete exural members, the value of I
eff
is determined as the ratio of the area of moment diagram segment
over which the working moment exceeds the cracking moment M
cr
to the total area of moment diagram in the following form (Fig. 1).
A
uncr
A
4
A
5
A
6
A
7

_
Mx<Mcr
Mx

4a
A
cr
A
1
A
2
A
3

_
MxPMcr
Mx

4b
A A
cr
A
uncr
4c
I.F. Kara, C. Dundar / Advances in Engineering Software 40 (2009) 836846 837
P
uncr
Mx < M
cr

A
uncr
A
4d
P
cr
Mx PM
cr

A
cr
A
4e
I
eff
P
uncr
I
1
P
cr
I
2
4f
where A
cr
is the area of moment diagram segment over which the
working moment exceeds the cracking moment M
cr
and A is the to-
tal area of moment diagram. In the same equation, P
cr
and P
uncr
are
the probability of occurrence of cracked and uncracked sections,
respectively.
Comparisons of aforementioned models for the effective mo-
ment of inertia are presented in this study.
3. Model used for the reduced shear stiffness of a cracked
member
Shear deformation can be large and signicant especially after
the development of cracks and therefore be of practical importance
in the design of reinforced concrete members. The variation of the
effective shear modulus of concrete due to cracking is considered
by employing the model developed by Al-Mahaidi [16]. In this
model, Al-Mahaidi proposed the following hyperbolic expression
for the reduced shear stiffness G
c
to be employed in the constitu-
tive relation of cracked concrete
G
c

0:4G
c
e
1
=e
cr
; for e
1
Pe
cr
5
where G
c
is the elastic shear modulus of uncracked concrete, e
1
is
the principal tensile strain normal to the crack and e
cr
is the crack-
ing tensile strain.
In this study, since three-dimensional analysis is considered, I
eff
,
M
cr
, M, I
1
, I
2
, e
1
and e
cr
are the values related to the exure in local y
and z-directions.
4. Formulation of the analytical procedure
In the present study, the stiffness matrix method has been em-
ployed taking into account the cracking effect with the effective
stiffness model. The reduction of shear stiffness following the crack
development is also considered by employing the reduced shear
stiffness model available in the literature. The analytical procedure
does not increase the numbers of degrees of freedom with respect
to common procedure and, at the same time, is particularly useful
in the case of highly statically indeterminate structures [17]. The
formulation of the analytical procedure is obtained for the three
dimensional analysis of reinforced concrete frame.
In this part the exibility inuence coefcients of a member will
rst be evaluated and then the stiffness matrix and the load vector
of a member with some region in the cracked state will be obtained
by using compatibility conditions and equilibrium equations.
A typical three dimensional member subjected to a point and a
uniformly distributed load, and positive end forces with corre-
sponding displacements are also shown in Fig. 2. For calculating
the relations between nodal actions and basic deformation param-
eters of a general space element, a cantilever model is used (Fig. 3).
The basic deformation parameters of a general space element may
be established by applying unit loads in turn in the directions of 1
3 and 79. Then, the compatibility conditions give the following
equation in matrix form:
f
11
0 0 0 0 0
0 f
22
f
23
0 0 0
0 f
32
f
33
0 0 0
0 0 0 f
77
f
78
0
0 0 0 f
87
f
88
0
0 0 0 0 0 f
99
_

_
_

_
P
1
P
2
P
3
P
7
P
8
P
9
_

_
_

d
1
d
2
d
3
d
7
d
8
d
9
_

_
_

_
6
in which, f
ij
is the displacement in ith direction due to the applica-
tion of unit loads in jth direction, and can be obtained by means of
the principal of virtual work as follows:
f
ij

_
L
0
M
zi
M
zj
E
c
I
effz

M
yi
M
yj
E
c
I
effy

V
yi
V
yj
G
c
A
s
V
zi
V
zj
G
c
A
s
M
bi
M
bj
G
c
I
o

N
i
N
j
E
c
A
_ _
dx:
7
In Eq. (7), M
zi
, M
zj
, M
yi
, M
yj
, V
zi
, V
zj
, V
yi
, V
yj
, M
bi
, M
bj
, N
i
and N
j
are the
bending moments, shear forces, torsional moments and axial forces
due to the application of unit loads in ith and jth directions, respec-
tively, E
c
denotes the modulus of elasticity of concrete, s and A are
the shape factor and the cross sectional area, respectively.
M
i
M
j
M
cr
M
cr
M
cr M
cr
2
3
4 5
1, 3, 5 cracked regions
2, 4 uncracked regions
L
P q
j
i
A
1
A
2
A
3
A
4
A
5 A
6
A
7
1
Beam

1
=0
2
3

6
=1
Fig. 1. Cracked and uncracked regions of the simply supported beam element.
x
Z z
X
P
4
, d
4
P
1
, d
1
P
7
, d
7
P
2,
d
2
P
3
, d
3
P
10
, d
10
P
12
, d
12
P
5
, d
5
P
6
, d
6
a
P
P
9
, d
9
P
8
, d
8
P
11
,d
11
Y
y
L
q
Fig. 2. A typical three dimensional member subjected to a point and a uniformly
distributed loads.
8
3
1
9
2
7
y
z
x
Fig. 3. A cantilever model for calculating the relations between the nodal actions
and basic deformation parameters.
838 I.F. Kara, C. Dundar / Advances in Engineering Software 40 (2009) 836846
Stiffness matrix of space frame members is obtained by invert-
ing the exibility matrix in Eq. (6) and using the equilibrium
conditions.
The member xed-end forces for the case of a point and a uni-
formly distributed load can be obtained by using the compatibility
and equilibrium conditions as follows:
P
10
P
20
P
30
P
40
P
50
P
60
P
90
P
110
0: 8a
P
70
f
88
f
70
f
78
f
80
= f
77
f
88
f
78
f
87
8b
P
80
f
77
f
80
f
78
f
70
= f
77
f
88
f
78
f
87
8c
P
100
qL P P
70
8d
P
120
qL
2
=2 PL a P
70
L P
80
_ _
8e
where f
i0
(i = 7, 8) is the displacement in ith direction due to the
application of span loads which can be evaluated by means of the
principal of virtual work in the following form:
f
i0

_
L
0
M
yi
M
0
E
c
I
effy

V
zi
V
0
G
c
A
s
_ _
dx 9
where M
0
and V
0
are the bending moment in local y-direction and
shear force in local z-direction due to the span loads. Finally, the
member stiffness equation can be obtained as
kd P
0
P 10
where k (12 12) is the stiffness matrix, d (12 1) is the displace-
ment vector, P
0
(12 1) is the xed end force vector and P (12 1)
is the total end force vector of the member. Eq. (12) is given in the
member coordinate system (x, y, z). Hence it should be transformed
to the structure coordinate system (X, Y, Z).
The effect of cracking on the behavior of a exural member is
largely dependent on both the magnitude and shape of the mo-
ment diagram, which is related to the type of applied loading. In
general the member has three cracked and two uncracked region,
as seen in Fig. 1. The integral values in Eqs. (7) and (9) will there-
fore be carried out in these cracked and uncracked regions
individually.
The exibility inuence coefcient can now be obtained by
using Eqs. (7) and (9), with the following terms of moment
and shear forces expressed in terms of non-dimensional coordi-
nate n
M
2
n nL; V
2
n 1 11a
M
3
n 1; V
3
n 0 11b
M
7
n nL; V
7
n 1 11c
M
8
n 1; V
8
n 0 11d
M
9
n 1; V
9
n 0 11e
M
0
n

qnL
2
2
; 0 6 n 6 a=L

qnL
2
2
PnL a; a=L < n 6 1
_
_
_
_
_
_
11f
V
0
n
qnL; 0 6 n 6 a=L
qnL P; a=L < n 6 1
_ _
11g
where n = x/L. In general case, n
i
, i = 1, 2, . . . , 6 as seen in Fig. 1.
If ACI and CEB models are considered for the effective mo-
ment of inertia of the cracked members, the exibility inuence
coefcient can be evaluated using Eqs. (7), (9) and (11) as
follows
f
22

L
3
E
c
_
1
0
n
2
I
effz
dn
sL
A
_
1
0
1
Gc
dn 12a
f
23

L
2
E
c
_
1
0
n
I
effz
dn 12b
f
33

L
E
c
_
1
0
1
I
effz
dn 12c
f
77

L
3
E
c
_
1
0
n
2
I
effy
dn
sL
A
_
1
0
1
G
c
dn 12d
f
78

L
2
E
c
_
1
0
n
I
effy
dn 12e
f
88

L
E
c
_
1
0
1
I
effy
dn 12f
f
70

qL
4
2E
c
_
1
0
n
3
I
effy
dn
qsL
2
A
_
a=L
0
n
G
c
dn

PL
3
E
c
_
1
a=L
nn a=L
I
effy
dn
sL
A
_
1
a=L
P
G
c
dn 12g
f
80

qL
3
2E
c
_
1
0
n
2
I
effy
dn
PL
2
E
c
_
1
a=L
n a=L
I
effy
dn 12h
On the other hand, if the probability-based effective stiffness model
is used for the effective exural stiffness of the cracked members,
the exibility inuence coefcients can be obtained as
F
22

L
3
3E
c
I
effz

sL
A
_
1
0
1
Gc
dn 13a
f
23

L
2
2E
c
I
effz
13b
f
33

L
E
c
I
effz
13c
f
77

L
3
3E
c
I
effy

sL
A
_
1
0
1
G
c
dn 13d
f
78

L
2
2E
c
I
effy
13e
f
88

L
E
c
I
effy
13f
f
70

qL
4
8E
c
I
effy

qsL
2
A
_
a=L
0
n
G
c
dn

P
3E
c
I
effy
L
3
a
3
=2 3aL
2
=2
sL
A
_
1
a=L
P
G
c
dn 13g
f
80

qL
3
6E
c
I
effy

P
E
c
I
effy
L
2
=2 a
2
=2 aL
_ _
13h
In the cracked regions where the applied moment is greater than or
equal to the cracking moment, I
eff
and G
c
vary with M along the re-
gion. Therefore, the integral values in these regions should be calcu-
lated by a numerical integration technique. The stiffness of a
cracked member varies according to the amount of crack formation
occurring in the members. Changes in stiffness of the cracked mem-
ber leads to a certain transfer of the internal forces of these mem-
bers to the other uncracked member, thus causing the cracking of
some of the otherwise uncracked members. Since the analytical
procedure allows for changes in stiffness of members, the variation
of the effective moment of inertia and effective shear modulus of
concrete in the cracked regions necessitate the redistribution of
the internal moments and forces in the structure. Hence iterative
procedure should be applied to obtain the nal deections and
internal forces of the structure. This procedure is computationally
more efcient especially in the case of the large indeterminate rein-
forced concrete structures.
In the analytical procedure developed on the basis of stiffness
matrix method, member equations are rst obtained and then
the system stiffness matrix and system load vector are assembled
by considering the contributions which come from each element.
Finally, the system displacements and member end forces are
determined by solving the system equation. This procedure is re-
peated step by step in all iterations.
I.F. Kara, C. Dundar / Advances in Engineering Software 40 (2009) 836846 839
5. Computer program
A general purpose computer program developed for the three
dimensional analysis of reinforced concrete structures based on
the iterative procedure is coded in Fortran 77 language. The ow
chart of the solution procedure of the program is given in Fig. 4.
In the iterative procedure, over reduction of stiffness in some
members at one iteration may cause smaller redistributions of
internal forces for these members and therefore result in excessive
increase in the stiffness of these cracked members in the subse-
quent iteration. Increase of exural stiffness attracts the transfer
of more internal forces to these members, thus leading to over
reduction to occur again. The alternate increase and decrease in
the stiffness of members causes a generally non-convergent proce-
dure. Therefore, in the solution procedure, the member end forces
used at each iteration step are taken as the mean value of the end
forces of all previous iterations [10,17]. In the program,
P
n
i
P
n1
i
P
n
i

6 e 14
is used as convergence criterion. Here, n is the iteration number, e is
the convergence factor and P
n
i
(i = 1, 12) is the end forces of each
member of the structure for nth iteration.
6. Verication of theoretical results
In order to determine feasibility for applying the analytical pro-
cedure to the beams under different loading conditions and com-
pare the different models for the value of I
eff
, the reinforced
concrete test beams subjected to various loading congurations
are considered. For this purpose four examples are presented.
The rst three examples are the simply supported beams subjected
to different loading conditions. The fourth example is the applica-
tion of the proposed analytical method on the two span continuous
beams.
6.1. Example 1
In this example, the experimental results of the reinforced con-
crete beams tested by Ning [14] subjected to various loading types
are compared with the present computer program. The test beams
had the same dimensions of 300 450 mm cross-section with
simply supported clear span of 3000 mm. The reinforcing steel in
the beams, the span and the load are shown in Fig. 5. The geometric
properties of the test beams and the reinforcement arrangement
are also listed in Table 1.
Fig. 6 presents the comparisons of effective moment of inertia
obtained from the ACI, CEB and probability-based effective stiff-
ness models. The variation of the experimentally determined I
eff
is also shown in Fig. 6. In obtaining the the value of I
eff
by using
ACI and CEB models, maximum moment on a relevant exural
member is considered because ACI and CEB relationships are inde-
pendent of applied loading types. From Fig. 6 it is clearly indicated
that different forms of the applied loading gives different values of
I
eff
, which means different reductions in the exural stiffness of
cracked beams. The value of effective moment of inertia calculated
from mid-point loading case is much larger than other two forms
of loading for the same level of M
max
/M
cr
value. The reason is that
the area of A
cr
segment over which the working moment exceeds
the cracking moment for the mid-point loading case is less than
3000 mm
A
A
P
450 mm
300 mm
d'
A
s
'
A
s
A-A
Fig. 5. Simply supported beam with mid-span load tested by Ning [14].
Input structure and
material properties
Input external loads
Perform linear elastic
analysis of the structure
Determine cracked and uncracked
regions of the members of the structure
Determine member stiffness and load vector using
I
eff
and
c
G and assemble the system stiffness matrix
Compute displacements of joints
and member end forces

n
i
1 n
i
n
i
P
P P
Yes
No
Compute the mean
value of the end
forces of all the
previous iterations
Store/output
results
Fig. 4. Solution procedure of the program.
Table 1
Simply supported reinforced concrete beams tested by Ning [14].
Types of load Beam
type
Effective
depth
(d, mm)
Tensile
reinforcement
(A
s
)
Compressive
reinforcement
A
0
s

1. Mid-span load B16-1 400 3/16 2/12

B20-1 396 3/20 2/12
B25-1 393.5 3/25 2/12
2. Two-point load B16-2 400 3/16 2/12
B20-2 396 3/20 2/12
B25-2 393.5 3/25 2/12
U (uniformly
distributed load)
B16-U 400 3/16 2/12
B20-U 396 3/20 2/12
B25-U 393.5 3/25 2/12
840 I.F. Kara, C. Dundar / Advances in Engineering Software 40 (2009) 836846
that of other two forms of loading cases. ACI code relationship pre-
dicting the effective moment of inertia without the considering the
loading types, underestimates the value of I
eff
for the mid-point
loading case but overestimates for the other two cases. However
the results of the probability-based effective stiffness model are
in good agreement with the test results in all loading cases.
Fig. 7 compares the theoretical and experimental results of I
eff
for beams subjected to mid-point loading case for the three differ-
ent reinforcement ratios, which are equivalent to 0.15, 0.24, 0.39 of
q
b
, the steel ratio at balanced condition, when not considering the
reinforcement effect. This gure indicates that although there is
satisfactory agreement between the test and theoretical results
for B25-1, which the steel ratio equals to 0.39q
b
, signicant differ-
ences are obtained for B20-1 and B16-1 case, the steel ratios of
beams equal to 0.24q
b
, 0.15q
b
. To improve the prediction of the
effective moment of inertia of beams by using the probability-
based effective stiffness model, it is necessary to take into account
the reinforcement effect. Hence, to determine the interaction effect
between reinforcement and concrete P
q
was dened by Ning [14]
as
P
q
P
cr

a
15a
a

q
00
1
3
_
; when 0 6 q
00
6 1

q
00 3
p
0:46; when q
00
> 1
_ _
15b
q
A
s
bd
q
00

d
h
q 15c
and I
eff
was modied as the following equation:
I
eff
1 P
cr
P
q
_
I
uncr
P
cr
P
q
I
cr
16
Fig. 8 presents the variation of the effective moment of inertia con-
sidering the modication of the reinforcement effect in the analysis.
As seen from gure the analytical results show more accurate pre-
diction than those of values not considering the steel effect.
Figs. 9 and 10 show the comparisons of the value of I
eff
obtained
from experimental and analytical results without considering the
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Probability-based effective stiffness model(B25-1)
Experimental(B25-1)
Probability-based effective stiffness model(B25-2)
Experimental(B25-2)
Probability-based effective stiffness model(B25-U)
Experimental(B25-U)
ACI
CEB
Ieff*10
6
mm
4
Mmax /Mcr
Fig. 6. Comparisons of the experimental and computed I
eff
values using different
models for B25 beams subjected to the three loading conditions.
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
B20-1(steel effect not considered)
B20-1(experimental results)
B16-1(steel effect not considered)
B16-1(experimental results)
B25-1(steel effect not considered)
B25-1(exprimental results)
Ieff *10
6
mm
4
Mmax/Mcr
Fig. 7. Comparisons of experimental I
eff
for beams subjected to mid-point loading
case with the theoretical results using probability-based effective stiffness model
(without considering the effects of reinforcement ratio).
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Ieff *10
6
mm
4
Mmax/Mcr
B20-1(steel effect considered) B20-1(experimental results)
B16-1(steel effect considered) B16-1(experimental results)
B25-1(steel effect considered) B25-1(experimental results)
Fig. 8. Comparisons of the experimental I
eff
and analytical results for beams
subjected to mid-point loading case including the effects of reinforcement ratio.
0
500
1000
1500
2000
0 1 2 3 4 5
B25-U(steel effect not considered) B25-U (experimental results)
B16-U(steel effect not considered) B16-U(experimental results)
M
max
/M
cr
I
eff
*10
6
mm
4
Fig. 10. Comparisons of the experimental I
eff
and analytical results for beams
subjected to uniformly distributed loading case (without considering the effects of
reinforcement ratio).
0
500
1000
1500
2000
0 1 2 3 4 5
B20-2(steel effect not considered)
B20-2(experimental results)
B16-2(steel effect not considered)
B16-2(experimental results)
B25-2(steel effect not considered)
B25-2(experimental results)
I
eff
*10
6
mm
4
M
max
/M
cr
Fig. 9. Comparisons of experimental I
eff
for beams subjected to two point loading
case with the theoretical results using probability-based effective stiffness model
(without considering the effects of reinforcement ratio).
I.F. Kara, C. Dundar / Advances in Engineering Software 40 (2009) 836846 841
steel effect for the two point and uniformly distributed loading
cases. This gure indicates that it is not necessary to consider the
modication of the steel effect in the analysis for these loading
cases.
The comparison between the test and theoretical results for the
maximum vertical deection of beams is presented in Fig. 11
through Fig. 13. The numerical results obtained from the present
computer program by using the probability-based effective stiff-
ness model are in good agreement with the test results with max-
imum discrepancies of 9% in all loading cases. It can also be seen
from the gure that reinforcement ratio inuences signicantly
the deection of a cracked member in the serviceability loading
range (see Fig. 12).
Fig. 14 presents a comparison of the deections using the differ-
ent models for the effective moment of inertia of the cracked mem-
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
0 2 4 6 8 10
Displacement (mm)
P

(
k
N
)
B25-1(Probability-based effective stiffness model)
B25-1(experimental results)
B20-1(Probability-based effective stiffness model)
B20-1(experimental results)
B16-1(Probability-based effective stiffness model)
B16-1(experimental results)
Fig. 11. Comparison between experimental and analytical results of the deection
of beams under mid-point loading.
0
100
200
300
400
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Displacement (mm)
P

(
T
o
t
a
l

l
o
a
d
,
k
N
)
B25-2(Probability-based effectie stiffness model)
B25-2(experimental results)
B20-2(Probability-based effective stiffness model)
B20-2(experimental results)
B16-2(Probability-based effective stiffness model)
B16-2(experimental results
Fig. 13. Comparison between experimental and predicted deection of beams
under two-point loading.
0 2 4 6 8 10
Displacement (mm)
0
100
200
300
400
500
P

(
T
o
t
a
l

l
o
a
d
,
k
N
)
B25-U(Probability-based effective stiffness model)
B25-U(experimental results)
B16-U(Probability-based effective stiffness model)
B16-U(experimental results)
Fig. 12. Comparisons of the analytical and experimental results of the deection of
beams under uniformly distributed loading.
0
100
200
300
400
500
0 2 4 6 8
Displacement (mm)
P

(
T
o
t
a
l

l
o
a
d
,
k
N
)
Probability-based effective stiffness model(B25-1)
ACI model(B25-1)
Probability-based effective stiffness model(B25-2)
ACI model(B25-2)
Probability-based effective stiffness model(B25-U)
ACI model(B25-U)
Fig. 14. Numerical comparison of the deection obtained by various models for the
effective exural stiffness.
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Displacement (mm)
P

(
k
N
)
B25-1(shear deformation considered)
B25-1(shear deformation not considered)
B20-1(shear deformation considered)
B20-1(shear deformation not considered)
Fig. 15. Theoretical inuence of shear deformation on the deection of beam under
mid-point concentrated loading.
0
100
200
300
400
0 2 4 6 8
Displacement (mm)
P

(
T
o
t
a
l

l
o
a
d
,
k
N
)
B25-2(shear deformation considered)
B25-2(shear deformation not considered)
B20-2(shear deformation considered)
B20-2(sher deformation not considered)
Fig. 16. Effect of shear deformation on the deection of beam under two-point
concentrated loading.
842 I.F. Kara, C. Dundar / Advances in Engineering Software 40 (2009) 836846
bers. As seen from the gure, there is satisfactory agreement be-
tween ACI and probability-based effective stiffness model for
beams subjected to mid-point loading case. Although the differ-
ences between the computed deections obtained by the different
effective exural stiffness models are found at the initial stage of
applied loading for beams subjected to two-point and uniformly
distributed loads, the results are close to one another with increas-
ing the vertical loads.
Fig. 15 through Fig. 17 shows the inuence of shear deformation
on the maximum total deection of the reinforced concrete beams.
It can be seen that the contribution of the shear deformation to the
total vertical deection of the beams increase with increasing ver-
tical loads in all loading cases. The results also indicate that the
percentage of shear deformation in the total deection of beams
is approximately 11% (see Fig. 16).
6.2. Example 2
The accuracy of the proposed analytical procedure has also been
investigated using other test results available in the literature [12].
Comparisons have been made with the results reported of three
beams with rectangular sections under different loading condi-
tions. The test beams had the same 200 mm square cross section
with simply supported clear span of 2500 mm and same tensile
reinforcement arrangement, two 16 mm diameter deformed steel
bars. The reinforcing steel in the beams and the types of load are
listed in Table 2. Three different types of loading were applied,
Table 2
Simply supported beams tested by Al-Shaikh and Al-Zaid [12].
Types of load Beam
type
Tensile
reinforcement
Compressive
reinforcement
C (mid-span load) B3-C 2/16 /10
T (third-point load) B5-T 2/16 /10
U (uniformly distributed
load)
B1-U 2/16 /10
0
100
200
300
400
500
0 2 4 6 8 10
Displacement (mm)
P

(
T
o
t
a
l

l
o
a
d
,
k
N
)
B25-U(shear deformation considered)
B25-U(shear deformation not considered)
B16-U(shear deformation considered)
B16-U(shear deformation not considered)
Fig. 17. Theoretical inuence of shear deformation on the deection of beam under
uniformly distributed loading.
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
0 1 2 3 4 5
B1-U(Probability based effective stiffness model)
B1-U(experimental results)
B3-C(Probability based effective stiffness model)
B3-C(experimental results)
B5-T(Probability based effective stiffness model)
B5-T(experimental results)
ACI model
CEB model
Ieff*10
6
mm
4
M
max
/M
cr
Fig. 18. Comparisons of the experimental and computed I
eff
values using different
models for beams subjected to the three loading conditions.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Displacement (mm)
P

(
T
o
t
a
l

l
o
a
d
,
k
N
)
Probability-based effective stiffness model(B1-U)
Experimental (B1-U)
Probability-based effective stiffness model(B3-C)
Experimental (B3-C)
Fig. 19. Comparison between experimental and predicted deection of beams
under the different loading conditions.
2500
A
A
P
240
200
188
10
A
s
A-A
Fig. 20. Simply supported beam with mid-span load tested by Al-Shaikh and Al-
Zaid [18] (dimensions in mm).
Probability-based effective stiffness model(BL-11,p=0.8%)
Experimental(BL-11,p=0.8%)
Probability-based effective stiffness model(BN-12,p=1.4%)
Experimental(BN-12,p=1.4%)
Probability-based effective stiffness model(BH-13,p=2%)
Experimental(BH-13,p=2%)
I
eff
*10
6
mm
4
M
max
/M
cr
0
50
100
150
200
250
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Fig. 21. Comparisons of experimental I
eff
with the theoretical results using
probability-based effective stiffness model (without considering the effects of
reinforcement ratio).
I.F. Kara, C. Dundar / Advances in Engineering Software 40 (2009) 836846 843
which included mid-span concentrated load; third-point concen-
trated load and uniformly distributed load.
Fig. 18 shows the comparisons of experimentally determined I
eff
for beams under different loading conditions. The variation of the
effective moment of inertia obtained from the probability-based
effective stiffness model, and ACI and CEB predictions at different
moment levels are also presented in Fig. 18. As seen from the g-
ure, similar results are obtained for the variation in the effective
moment of inertia as the previous example. The comparison be-
tween test and theoretical results indicate that probability-based
effective stiffness model are in good agreement with the test re-
sults more satisfactorily in all loading cases than the ACI and CEB
models.
The comparison between the test and theoretical results for the
maximum deection of beams obtained by the developed com-
puter program is presented in Fig. 19. It can be seen from gure
that the numerical results agree well with the test results with
maximumdiscrepancies of 6%. This analytical method also predicts
the deection with a high degree of accuracy in the serviceability
loading range.
6.3. Example 3
In this example, comparisons of different models for the effec-
tive moment of inertia obtained by the present computer program
have been made with the results of simply supported test beams,
having three different reinforcement ratios under the mid-span
load case [18]. The section dimensions of beams were 200 mm
wide and 240 mm deep. The reinforcing steel in the beams, the
span and the load are shown in Fig. 20.
Fig. 21 compares the experimental and theoretical values of I
eff
for beams with 0.8%, 1.4% and 2% steel ratio which are equivalent
to 2.2, 0.4 and 0.55q
b
when not considered the reinforcement ef-
fect in the analysis. As seen from the gure signicant differences
are found between test and theoretical results. In order to obtain
more accurate results and improve this prediction of effective mo-
ment of inertia of beams, it is necessary to consider the effect of
reinforcement ratio by using Eqs. (15) and (16) for this loading case
as the rst example. Fig. 22 shows the variation of the effective
0
50
100
150
200
250
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Probability-based effective stiffness model(BL-11,p=0.8%)
Experimental(BL-11,p=0.8%)
Probability-based effective stiffness model(BN-12,p=1.4%)
Experimental(BN-12,p=1.4%)
Probability-based effective stiffness model(BH-13,p=2%)
Experimental(BH-13,p=2%)
I
eff
*10
6
mm
4
M
max
/M
cr
Fig. 22. Comparisons of the experimental I
eff
and analytical results including the
effects of reinforcement ratio.
(a) Two span continuous beams with uniformly distributed load
Negative Moment
Region
Positive Moment
Region
Beam b
(mm)
h
(mm)
q
(kN/mm)
L
(mm)
A
s
A
s
' A
s
A
s
'
X1,X4 152.4 203.2 2.77 12192 684 600 400 400
X2,X5 152.4 203.2 2.77 12192 684 600 400 200
X3,X6 152.4 203.2 2.77 12192 684 600 400 -
Y1,Y4 304.8 127 2.13 12679.7 1000 1000 516 516
Y2,Y5 304.8 127 2.13 12679.7 1000 1000 516 258
Y3,Y6 304.8 127 2.13 12679.7 1000 1000 516 -
Z1,Z4 304.8 76.2 0.99 10668 516 645 284 284
Z2,Z5 304.8 76.2 0.99 10668 516 645 284 142
Z3,Z6 304.8 76.2 0.99 10668 516 645 284 -
b (dimensions of beams)
Section A-A
h
b
w
A
s
A
s
'
L
2
3 4 5 6 1 7
A
A
0.21 L 0.165 L 0.125 L 0.125 L 0.165 L 0.21 L
q
Fig. 23. Two span continuous beams tested by Washa and Flock [19].
844 I.F. Kara, C. Dundar / Advances in Engineering Software 40 (2009) 836846
moment of inertia taking into account the modication of rein-
forcement effect in the analysis. It can be seen from gure that
the results show more accurate prediction than those of values
not considering the reinforcement effect. Hence it is important to
consider the effect of reinforcement in the analysis for beams un-
der the mid-point loading case in order to obtain more accurate
results.
6.4. Example 4
In the last example, two span continuous beam tested by Washa
and Flock [19] is taken into account. The continuous beam
subjected to uniformly distributed loads is modeled by six beam
elements as seen in Fig. 23. The dimensions of the beam, the spans
and the loads are also shown in the gure. For calculating the
exural tensile strength and modulus of elasticity of concrete the
following equations (ACI Code Eq. [20]) are also used.
E
c
4730

f
c
_
N=mm
2
17a
f
r
0:62

f
c
_
N=mm
2
17b
in which, f
c
is the compressive strength of concrete.
The comparison between experimental and theoretical deec-
tion of joint 2 obtained from the present study using the different
models for the effective moment of inertia are given in Table 3. As
seen in Table 3 the results of the theoretical deections determined
from present computer program agree well with the experimental
results. It can also be seen that different models provide similar
results.
In this example, almost the same results are also obtained
whether the steel effect is considered or not considered in the anal-
ysis. Therefore the same conclusion is reached for the case of the
two-span continuous beam as for the simple beam examples.
7. Conclusions
The work described in this paper is concerned with the effect of
the loading types and reinforcement ratios on the stiffness and
deection of reinforced concrete beams. For this purpose, an itera-
tive analytical procedure, which considers the cracking effect with
the effective stiffness model in the reinforced concrete structures
under different loading conditions, has been presented. The feasi-
bility for applying the proposed procedure to the beams subjected
to different loading congurations has also been tested by a com-
parison between experimental and numerical results.
In the analytical procedure, the variation of the exural stiffness
of a cracked member has been evaluated by using ACI, CEB and
probability-based effective stiffness model. Shear deformation ef-
fect, which can be large following crack developments and thus
be practical importance in design, is also taken into account in
the analysis, and the variation of shear stiffness in the cracked re-
gions of members has been considered by employing reduced
shear stiffness model available in the literature.
Comparisons of various models for the effective moment of
inertia have been made with the reinforced concrete test beams.
The probability-based effective stiffness model predicts effective
stiffness of members more accurately than the either ACI or CEB
relationships. The results also indicate that different forms of the
applied loading give different values of the effective moment of
inertia, which implies different reductions in the exural stiffness
of cracked beams.
The numerical results of the analytical procedure indicate that
the effect of reinforcement ratio on the effective moment of inertia
has a signicant factor on the beams under mid-point loading case,
while it has less signicant effect on the beams under the two-
point and uniformly distributed loading cases. Therefore it is nec-
essary to consider the effect of reinforcement ratio for the mid-
point loading case.
The feasibility and the reliability of the proposed analytical pro-
cedure have been tested by means of comparisons with the theo-
retical and experimental results of the deection of reinforced
concrete beams. The numerical results have been found to be in
good agreement with the test results. The analytical procedure also
predicts the deections with a high degree of accuracy in the ser-
viceability loading range.
The theoretical deection of beams has also been obtained with
the different effective exural stiffness models. There is satisfac-
tory agreement between ACI and probability-based effective stiff-
ness models for beams subjected to mid-point loading case.
Although the differences between the deections obtained by the
different effective exural stiffness models are found at the initial
stage of applied loading for beams subjected to two-point and uni-
formly distributed loads, the results are close to one another with
increasing the vertical loads.
Stiffness matrix method has been applied to obtain the numer-
ical solutions of the proposed analytical procedure. The major
advantage of this procedure is that it is efcient from the view-
points of computational effort and convergence rate to analyze
the statically indeterminate structures with members in cracked
state.
The numerical results of the analytical procedure indicate that
contribution of the shear deformation to the total defection of
the reinforced concrete beams increases with increasing loads. It
is therefore important to consider the variation of shear rigidity
in the cracked regions of members for obtaining more accurate
results.
References
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structural engineers, Zurich; 1991. p. 1538.
Table 3
Comparison of experimental [19] and predicted deections at joint 2.
Beam type Deection at joint 2 (mm) Ratio
Experimental (A) Present study (probability-based eff. stiff. mod. (B) Present study (ACI mod.) (C) Cosenza [6] (D) B/A C/A D/A
X1, X4 14.2 14.6 13.4 16 1.03 0.94 1.13
X2, X5 14.4 14.9 13.8 16.3 1.03 0.96 1.13
X3, X6 13.2 15.3 14.3 16.6 1.16 1.08 1.26
Y1, Y4 22.6 23.5 21.7 25.1 1.04 0.96 1.11
Y2, Y5 23.6 24.1 22.4 25.7 1.02 0.95 1.09
Y3, Y6 25.4 24.8 23.3 26.2 0.98 0.92 1.03
Z1, Z4 26.4 28.6 26 32.3 1.08 0.98 1.22
Z2, Z5 28.7 29.3 26.8 32.6 1.02 0.93 1.13
Z3, Z6 30.5 30 27.7 33 0.98 0.91 1.08
Mean ratio 1.03 0.96 1.13
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846 I.F. Kara, C. Dundar / Advances in Engineering Software 40 (2009) 836846