A comparison of the most important properties of structural concrete: European standards versus American standards

Abstract

Several mechanical properties are key to the design of reinforced concrete members. The most important property for the ultimate design of concrete structural members is concrete compressive strength. Regarding the serviceability conditions of cracking and deformation, both the modulus of elasticity of concrete and its tensile strength have great importance in the response of a member. Different standards sometimes have different definitions for the same concept, and this can be a handicap for engineers who need to use several regulations. In this article, a comparison of both compressive and tensile strengths, and the modulus of elasticity from two widely used standards, ACI-318 and Eurocode 2, is presented. Data corresponding to three real concrete quality-control campaigns are studied.

Keywords:

• Compressive strength
• tensile strength
• modulus of elasticity of concrete
• Eurocode 2
• ACI-318

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the collaboration of CEMOSA in the development of this research, and we would especially like to thank the engineer Sara Navarro, who kindly provided the data from three real case studies analysed in this work.

Disclosure Statement

On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are freely available upon request from the corresponding author ([email protected]).

Additional information

Funding

The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support provided to the first author by the University of Granada, as a part of the program for collaborating undergraduate students.