REINFORCEMENT

INTRODUCTION
Steel bars and concrete are used together to increase the strength of a concrete. Because
concrete is strong in compression but, weak in tension. This tensile force is taken by the steel bars.
Steel is produced containing 90% of iron adding carbon, silicon & manganese. Ceylon Heavy
Industries & Construction Co. Ltd. is produced various types and sizes of steel bars. There are
mainly two types of steel bars used in construction as, tensile reinforcement and shear
reinforcement. Generally, tore steel or rib steel used as tensile reinforcement while mild steel is
used as shear reinforcement. When using steel bars, must be free from oil, grease, dust & paint. For
our project, 12 m long tore steel bars were imported from Singapore.
TYPE

STRENGTH

Tore steel (Y)

460 N/mm2

Y- Deformed high yield bar

Mild steel (R)

250 N/mm2

R- Plain mild steel bar

There is a standard notation for reinforcement used in drawings.

Y 12 @ 200 c/c BW

Location (both ways)

Center to center
Space between bars
Diameter of bar
Deformed high yield bar
Abbreviations
T

- Top

- Bottom

B/W

- Both ways

B/F

- Both faces

COVER TO REINFORCEMENT
If steel is exposed to the air it would rust and gradually loose its strength. Also if a fire
occurred in the building, the steel might loose strength. So, to protect the steel cover should be
placed at least 12 mm thick between the reinforcement and the surface of concrete or earth. The gap
varies to the type of work or structure and the environmental condition. The mix proportion of
cement/sand for cover block was 1:1.
FUNCTION OF COVERNG
o Protecting steel bars against corrosion.
o To protect steel against heat.
o To allow surface treatment such as hammering.

Binding wire

Cover block

Cover blocks which have been used in the site;

ITEM

COVER

Beams, lintels

25 mm

Columns

40 mm

Footing on lean concrete

40 mm

Stair wall

40 mm

Slab side

40 mm

Bored piles

75 mm

BENDING AND CUTTING OF REINFORCEMENT

BAR BENDING
For less than 12 mm diameter bars, bent by manually. For the bending, several rigid iron
nails were fixed on a wooden block, was used. Cutting of small diameter bars were done by
hacksaw.
Bars were bent to the specified dimensions which were described in the drawings. They
were not faced to the heat and all the bent bars were straightened before use.
BAR CUTTING
Before cutting any bar it is often worthy to rearrange them according to the bar schedule. In
this way cutting the longest bar first, can reduce wastage. Small diameter bars were cut by
manually but, large diameter bars were cut as using power cutting techniques. In this case, special
care must be taken for the safety.
BAR LAPPING
If a reinforcement bar is not long enough for the work, a lap joint is used. The lap lengths
depend on the followings.
o Diameter of the bar
o Compression or Tension
Big diameters of bars cannot be lapped. They have to do crank.
In our site, used as following.
Lap length

- 45 x bar diameter

Anchorage

- 45 x bar diameter

When different diameters of bars have to be lapped,

Lap length

- 45 x big diameter

All the lap joints must be used in places where the stress is minimum to avoid sudden
failures.