Analysis of steel reinforced functionally graded concrete beam cross sections

Abstract

Owing to continuously changing strength moduli properties, functionally graded concrete (FGC) has remarkable advantages over the traditional homogeneous concrete materials regarding cement optimization. Some researchers have studied mechanical behaviors and production methodologies. Problems arise as to how to incorporate the effects of the non-homogeneity of concrete strengths in the analysis for design. For a steel Reinforced Functionally Graded Concrete (RFGC) beam structure, the associated boundary conditions at both ends have to be at the neutral axis position after the occurrence of the presumed cracks. Because the neutral axis is no longer at the mid-plane of the beam crosssection, an iterative procedure has to be implemented. The procedure is somewhat complicated since the strength of the beam cross section has to be integrated due to the non-homogeneity in concrete strengths. This paper proposes an analytical procedure that is very straightforward and simple in concept, but accurate in designing the steel reinforced functionally graded concrete beam cross-sections.