What is reinforced concrete?
Fiber-reinforced concrete is essentially concrete that has been reinforced with steel cable. This material has to be carefully engineered. If it isn’t reinforced enough, the concrete could be weak and fail. Although there are some advantages of reinforced concrete there are also some disadvantages. This type of concrete can be molded and shaped in ways that isn’t possible for some other materials, which provides some opportunities for visually intriguing and innovative design.
Reinforced concrete is a popular material since it is strong, affordable, durable, versatile, and easily adaptable. It is typically used in the construction of foundations all the way to building roofs.
Reinforced concrete advantages
Strength
Reinforced concrete has typically good tension strength as well as compression strength. This results in concrete being a desired construction material.
Economical
The things needed to make concrete are usually very cheap and available worldwide. Not to mention that its production is very low. The maintenance cost is also very low, and it has a long-lasting nature.
Reinforced concrete’s low maintenance, durability, energy efficiency, and resilience reduce operating costs relative to operational energy consumption.
Versatility
Concrete could be placed in a number of shuttering or formwork configurations so as to form desired surface, shapes, sizes, texture, and forms at a construction site. This is due to the fact that fresh concrete flows and is in a liquid state. Therefore, this material is more suited for architectural requirements.
Durability
Structures made from reinforced concrete are durable if they’re laid and designed properly. Materials aren’t affected by weather such as snow and rainfall and can last upwards of 100 years. Because of its low permeability, concrete can resist chemicals dissolved in water such as sulfates, carbon dioxide, and chloride, which can result in corrosion in the concrete without serious deterioration.
This explains why reinforced concrete is ideal to submerged applications like building canals, linings, pipelines, structures, waterfront structures, and dams.
Fire resistance
Concrete doesn’t have a nature that allows it to burn or catch fire. This material can withstand heat for between 2 and 6 hours which allows enough time for rescue in case of a fire. Reinforced concrete buildings are highly fire resistant. Moreso that construction materials such as wood or steel. This material is suitable for use in high temperature and blast applications.
Ductility
Steel reinforcement imparts ductility to the reinforced concrete structures. Ductility allows concrete to display signs of distress such as deflection and cracking if reinforced concrete pieces experience overloading. This allows engineers to consider suitable measures to further prevent damages to concrete.
Seismic resistance
Reinforced concrete structures that are properly designed are highly earthquake resistant.
Ease of construction
Compared to steel’s use of structure, reinforced concrete needs less skilled labor for putting up a structure.
Ability to consume and recycle waste
By products such as fly ash, slag also known as ground granulated blast furnaces slag or GGBFS, waste glass, and ground vehicle tires could be recycled as a substitute for cement or supplementary materials. As a result, concrete production lowers environmental impacts due to industrial waste and improves the characteristics of concrete and also, consequently the quality of the structure won’t be compromised.
Multi-mode application
A major advantage of concrete is that it has the ability to be used in a few different application methodologies. Concrete is poured, pumped, hand applied, grouted, sprayed, and also used for advanced applications like tunnels and shotcrete.
Pros and cons of reinforced concrete
Pros:
- Buildings made with this material tend to have a higher compressive strength
- Fire and weather resistant
- Low maintenance cost
- Minimum deflection
Cons:
- Forms used for casting tend to cost more
- Shrinkage results in crack development
- Only has 1/10th the tensile strength as it would compressive strength
Reinforced concrete applications
- Bunkers and Silos
- Chimneys and Towers
- Precast Works
- Retaining Walls
- Marine Structures
- Pipes and Conduits
- Floating Structures
- Foundations
- Water Tanks
- Roads
- Bridges
- Flyovers
- Buildings
