Strength Design For Reinforced Concrete Hydraulic Structures

This online engineering PDH course describes typical loads for the design of reinforced concrete hydraulic structures (RCHS) and provides detailed information on design procedures along with examples of their application.

Reinforced concrete hydraulic structures have very long service lives and are subject to different types of loads, severe climatic conditions and sometimes to chemically contaminated atmosphere. To ensure a satisfactory long term service and to provide a safe, reliable and cost effective hydraulic structures, industry design and construction standards should be adopted.

Satisfactory long-term service requires that the saturated concrete be highly resistant to deterioration due to daily or seasonal weather cycles and tidal fluctuations at coastal sites. The often relatively massive members of RCHS must have adequate density and impermeability, and must sustain minimal cracking for control of leakage and for control of corrosion of the reinforcement. Most RCHS are lightly reinforced structures (reinforcement ratios less than 1%) composed of thick walls and slabs that have limited ductility compared to the fully ductile behavior of reinforced concrete buildings (in which reinforcement ratios are typically 1% or greater).