Design Guidelines for the Cracking Control of Thick High-Strength Concrete Members

Abstract

Durability concerns are of prime interest in designing RC structures, especially for offshore platforms and nuclear containment structures exposed to an aggressive environment. Most of these structures have been built using high-strength concrete (HSC) with a thick concrete cover. However, most of the available design approaches concerning the cracking control of RC members were empirically developed for members of normal strength concrete with normal concrete covers. This investigation focused on the development of simple design equations for predicting the cracking behavior and cracking control of thick HSC members. The proposed model takes into account the influence of most factors affecting the cracking response, such as the concrete tensile strength, bond strength, reinforcement ratio, reinforcement arrangement in concrete sections in perpendicular directions, and steel strain. Based on this investigation, cracking control design curves are developed to limit the crack width to certain values according to the exposure condition. These curves are ready for engineers to use in order to ensure cracking control in thick HSC members.