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The tensile strength: The most fundamental mechanical characteristics of concrete

Concrete is an inhomogeneous building material. It has a considerable and reliable compressive strength and a relative low tensile strength which can be even exhausted locally under unfortunate conditions. It is quite obvious that the concrete tensile strength was always reprehended as the most unreliable concrete property. A simple relationship between tensile- and compressive strength is introduced. The mechanical background of the relation tensile- to compressive strength in case of ‘normal’ and high strength concretes is elucidated. Mechanical bond, too, relies completely on the tensile strength. In the design of structural concrete members the tension fields are more characteristic than the compression fields. Effective concrete strengths are not successful. Tensile strength can be applied as ‘yield condition’ for the lower bound solution in the theory of plasticity. The paper intends to contribute to the acceptance of the tensile strength as the more fundamental concrete characteristics.