Title:
Landmark Series: Continuity as a Factor in Reinforced Concrete Design, Part 1
Author(s):
Hardy Cross
Publication:
Concrete International
Volume:
25
Issue:
3
Appears on pages(s):
55-65
Keywords:
DOI:
Date:
3/1/2003
Abstract:
The purpose of this paper is to explain a rapid and accurate approximate method for analyzing continuous girders and frames of reinforced concrete for bending moments, shears, and reactions and to bring together certain questions and considerations which bear on the interpretation of such analyses. The whole subject has often been confused on the one hand by too crude approximations and on the other by too fussy mathematical theory. The consequence of the mathematics has frequently been that the theory has occupied so prominent a position as to shut out from consideration certain practical aspects, and the problems solved often bear little resemblance to actual construction. It is important to recognize that continuity in reinforced concrete construction is a fact -- not a theory. It is obvious to anyone that a concrete beam can not bend without deforming the girders and columns connected to it. It is more important to recognize this fact clearly than it is to evaluate the effect with great precision. Provision must be made in some way for this bending and the resulting shears. Perhaps the title chose is too broad, for the paper raises rather than discusses some of the questions involved, and it has been found necessary to omit several phases of the subject entirely, especially the effect of specifications on economical type of design.