Effect of Reinforcement Ratio on Damage in Reinforced Concrete Beams- A Damage Mechanics Approach

The principles of damage mechanics are used to study the effect of reinforcement ratio on the total damage of reinforced concrete beams. The definition of the damage variable in terms of the damaged and effective crosssectional areas is adopted. A consistent and simple mathematical derivation is presented to find the exact relation between the total damage and the damage of concrete in a reinforced concrete beam. It is shown that the reinforcement ratio has a clear but small effect on the total damage variable of the reinforced concrete beam. As the reinforcement ratio increases, the total damage in the beam decreases. Although this effect is small, it becomes more pronounced at higher levels of damage in the beam.