Cracking is considered to be one of the most important factors in determining the durability of reinforced concrete structures.
With the advent of higher yield strength reinforcement and the consequent increase of service stresses in the reinforcing steel, the width and spacing of cracks have become critical factors in the design of reinforced concrete beams.
In the past, many theories were based partly on test results and partly on theoretical analysis.
It is the purpose of this work to study the relationships among crack spacing, bond slip, and member surface crack widths in order to obtain expressions which will predict the maximum widths and average spacing of cracks which are observable on the tension faces of reinforced concrete beams.
Accurate prediction formulas for the maximum crack width and average crack spacing in the reinforced concrete flexural members are proposed. These new formulas are based on the bond-slip theory an statistical regression analysis.
Numerical comparisons of the present formulas of the crack width and spacing indicate more satisfactory agreement with existing test data than the empirical Gergely-Lutz formulas etc.
