ABSTRACT
Cracks occur in reinforced concrete sections, with or without prestressing, when the concrete stress exceeds its tensile strength. After cracking, the internal forces must be resisted by the reinforcement and the uncracked part of the concrete cross-section. The part of the concrete section that continues to be effective in resisting the internal forces is subjected mainly to compression and some tension not exceeding the tensile strength of concrete. This chapter discusses the analysis of strain and stress distributions in cracked sections. It also presents empirical equations that give an estimate of crack widths.
