The analysis of load carrying capacity and cracking of slightly reinforced concrete members in bending

Slightly reinforced concrete members are the members made by concrete with reinforcement less than minimum given in codes for reinforced concrete ones. Plain concrete and slightly reinforced concrete members in bending are treated in the same way during the dimensioning and the influence of longitudinal reinforcement on the load carrying capacity is not taken into account. The mechanism of work and crack formation in slightly reinforced concrete members is not completely recognized. The author’s own research program was made. The experiment was aimed at the determination of cracking moment and load carrying capacity of slightly reinforced concrete beams with different reinforcement ratio. Also plain concrete beams and the typical reinforced concrete beam were tested. The analysis of the obtained values of maximum bending moment and crack’s widths was made according to the reinforcement ratio. The analysis of test results shows how the presence of longitudinal steel bars in concrete members, even when reinforcement ratio is low, changes cracking process and influences the value of cracking moment in flexural members. On the basis of test results, the method how to calculate the load carrying capacity of slightly reinforced concrete elements in bending has been proposed.