Beam and column design to AS3600-1994 using the curvilinear stress block : a brief review for practising engineers

This paper is based on a series of seminars conducted by the authors for practising engineers. The Concrete Structures Code AS3600-1994 contains many changes which were not there in the previous editions of AS3600. A significant change which is discussed in this paper is the provision to use a curvilinear stress block for ductility and capacity calculations. The equations and integrals for forces and moments derived from the curvilinear stress block are presented in this paper. The use of simple spreadsheet programs to compute the full range moment-curvature (M-Φ) curves for beams and interaction diagrams for columns is also discussed. Finally some design examples are presented to illustrate the applications of spreadsheets.