National Diploma in Engineering Sciences

REINFORCEMENT
Plain concrete is comparatively strong in compression but weak in tension .In such
cases the tensile side can be strengthened by providing steel rod as reinforcement.
Any material specified for used, as reinforcement to concrete must fulfill certain
requirements. It an economic structural member is to be constructed. These basic
requirements are.
1. Tensile strength

2. Be of a material that can be easily bent to any required shape.

3. Must be capable of achieving the tensile strength without unnecessary strain.

4. Availability at a reasonable cost which must be acceptable to the over all

design concept.
The material which meets all the above requirements is steel.

TYPES OF REINFORCEMENTS

Form of bars and is supplied in two basic types; namely mild steel and tor steel which
specifies a characteristic strength of 250 N/mm2 for mild steel and 460 N/mm2 for tor
steel. Mild steel is used generally in places where not much strength is required.
Generally this type is used for column, beams stirrups and secondary reinforcement.
The surface of mild steel provides a adequate bond but the bond of tor steel bars being
more critical with the higher stress developed, is generally increased by rolling on to
the surface of the bar longitudinal or the bar. The range of diameter available for mild
steel are 6,8,10 mm. 10,12,16,20,25, 32,36,40 and 50 mm bar sizes are available for
Tor steel. In Sri Lanka ribbed Tor steel manufactured by the steel corporation with a
maximum length of 6 m.

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STORAGE OF REINFORCEMENT

Reinforcement should be stored off the ground on scaffold racks or resting on timbers
or concrete with steel or wooden separating pegs. If one end of each straight bar is
stored butted against a timber stop, the length can be measured easily. The main aim
of correct storage is to have the bars positioned where they cannot become
contaminated by mud or oil and where re-handling is minimized. Storage area should
be located away from access to roads where mud or oil might cause contamination.
Mesh fabric should be stored flat on a level surface to avoid distortion.

PREPERATION OF BAR BENDING SCHEDULES

Once the design engineer has determined the reinforcement required detail drawings
can be prepared to give the contractor the information required to construct the
structure .The drawings should give the following information.
1. Sufficient cross reference to identify the member in relationship to the whole
structure.
2. All the necessary dimensions for design and fabrication of formwork.
3. Details of the reinforcement
4. Minimum cover of concrete over the reinforcement
5. Concrete grade required if not already covered in the specification

Reinforced concrete details should be prepared so that there is a distinct definition

between the lines representing the outline of the member and those representing the
reinforcement. Bars of a common diameter and shape are normally grouped together
with the same reference number when included in the same reference number To
simplify the reading of reinforced concrete details it is common practice to show only
one bar of each group in full together with the last bar position.

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Reinforcement on detail drawing is annotated by a coding system to simplify
preparation and reading of the details. For example;

2T20 01-250

-Total number of bars

- Type of bar (T-Tor steel

R-Mild steel)

20

-Bar diameter in mm

-Bar mark

250

-Bar spacing (center to center)

The code letter Y represented Tor steel and it could be replaced by code letter which is
used be replaced Mild steel. While the T presents a top layer of reinforcement and it
could be B foe bottom layer.

The diameters of steel used for piles in the site are 10 mm mild steel and 16mm,
20mm & 25mm tor steel.
Bar bending is done in site manually. The bar benders have driven dowels to timer to
bend the Reinforcement in to the desired shape. The bar bending schedules show the
profile of the Reinforcement together with the lengths and laps. Such a schedule will
be proved to the Bar Benders to bend the Reinforcement & also a bar bending
schedule is provide by the contractor to be used to check whether the arrangement is
correct

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Weights of bars:
Nominal

Cross-sectional

Diameter

Area

length

6 m bars per

mm2

Kg/m

M.T

28.3

0.222

10

78.5

0.617

270

12

11301

0.888

187

16

201.1

1.579

105

20

314.2

2.456

67

25

490.9

3.584

43

mm

Mass per unit

Minimum no of

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Bar Bending Schedule:

Member

Bar
Mark

Bar
Type&
Size

No of
No of
Bars in
members
each

750mm
Dia. Pile
A7b
(19.48 m)

1st Cage

T25

01

08

08

6.0

48.00

2nd Cage

T20

01

08

08

6.0

48.00

3rd Cage

T20

01

08

08

6.0

48.00

4th Cage

T20

01

08

08

4.48

35.84

1st Cage

R10
R10

01
01

07
03

07
03

6.0
2.28

42.00
6.84

2nd Cage

R10
R10

01
01

07
03

07
03

6.0
2.28

42.00
6.84

3rd Cage

R10
R10

01
01

07
03

07
03

6.0
2.28

42.00
6.84

4th Cage

R10
R10

01
01

05
02

05
02

6.0
2.28

30.00
4.56

Total
No

Length
Of
each
bar

Total
Length

Mild
steel
(Spiral)

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LAP LENGTH
Normally all reinforcement are provided in single piece, for the full length of the
member reinforced. It such length exceeds the normal manufactured length (6m) of
the bar, laps are provided to get required length. This combination is done by
overlapping two bars in to an adequate length that lap lengths are specified as not to
be less than 15 times of the smaller bar diameter. In our site, we used 50 times of the
bar diameter, When bar of two different diameters are lapped, the lap length is 50
times the diameter of the smaller bar.

Where the bars overlap and cross or interest one another they should be tied with soft
iron wire to maintain their relative positions. Gauge 18 binding wires were used for
that purpose. Gauge 18 denotes that the diameter of the wire 1/18 inches. Steel bars
should not be weld. In the welding process increase of temperature in the steel bars is
caused to undue changes in its properties. Hence it caused to reduction of the strength
in reinforcement. But in our site welding process was done, because when placing the
pile cages tying of binding wires will not enough to tie the steel bars properly.

COVER TO THE REINFORCEMENT

The Reinforcement must be embedded in the concrete and there must be a safe
distance between the surface of the concrete and the Reinforcement. This distance is
termed as the cover to the Reinforcement & this is provided to protect the
Reinforcement from corrosion and also against fire.
Therefore it should be checked after re-bar work & before concreting. If it was not,
for result of that it would loose the strength and reduce the life time of the design.
Covering is depends on the condition where we used the concrete and environmental
condition Cover blocks are made to a size of the cover required & are made of 1:2:4:
cement, sand, aggregate. The aggregate size used is very small and is termed as Chip
Stones. In our site piles are casted & clear cover to the reinforcement is 75 mm.

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PLACING REINFORCEMENT

Before placing reinforcement cage into the bored hole we should check the cover
blocks are available or not. If not we have to advice barbenders to provide the cover
blocks to the reinforcement cages. Reinforcement must give a minimum cover of
concrete to give the steel protection from corrosion die to contact with moisture and to
give the structural member a certain degree of fire resistance.

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