The Earthquake Engineering Online Archive

An Elastic Explanation for the Observed Buckling Mode of Reinforcing Bars in Concrete

Falk, Wayne M.

UCB/SEMM-1999/08, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, 1999-08, 55 pages (500/C23/1999/08)

The work presented in this report considers only the behavior of bars that buckle elastically. The explanation it presents for the observed buckling mode of concrete reinforcing bars is promising but far from rigorous. In order to truly understand this phenomenon, a more representative constitutive law should be used. Even for the plastic case, consideration should be given to the snap buckling phenomenon presented in the report.

Available online: http://nisee.berkeley.edu/documents/SEMM/SEMM-99-08.pdf (3 MB)