Bent up bars

The usual practice of bending of a bar near a support is at an angle of 450. The angle of bend may also be 300 in shallow beams where effective depth is less than 1.5 times its breadth. The purpose of bend near a support is two fold, firstly to resist negative bending moment which occurs at the region of the support and secondly to resist shear force which is greater at the support.

Bending moment which is maximum at the mid span diminishes towards the supports (except cantilevers) and the number of tensile bars required to resist bending moment may thus be reduced near the ends providing sufficient bond length. The bending moment and shear force along the span of a beam depends on the loading and end fixation conditions of a beam.

However, when the position of bent up bars are not shown in the drawing but it is required to prepare a bar bending schedule then the position of crank may be considered as 1/4th to 1/5th of the effective span of a beam.



Denoting effective depth of a member by d and L = span.
For 450 bends length of crank = d/sin 450 = d/0.707 = 1.42d Length covered by crank = d.
Therefore, Extra length required for one bend = 1.42d – d = 0.42d.
Thus if a bar is cranked at both ends at 450 then total length of the bar = L + 2 x 0.42d.
Thus for 300 bends –
Length of crank = d /sin 300 = 2d, Length covered by crank = d/tan 300 = 1.73 d.
Therefore, Extra length required for only one bend = 2d – 1.73d = 0.27d.
Thus if a bar is cranked at both ends at 300 then total length of bar = L + 2 x 0.27 d.

Table showing the number of bars available for bending and the position at which bars in bottom of beams can be bent up or stopped giving sufficient bond for different end conditions. This is applicable for Beams carrying uniformly distributed load only.


L = Effective span

No. of bars at mid span
For freely supported
End Span
Interior span (Fixed)
Free
Fixed

1st bent at
2st bent at
3st bent at
4st bent at
1st bent at
2st bent at
3st bent at
4st bent at
1st bent at
2st bent at
3st bent at
4st bent at
1st bent at
2st bent at
3st bent at
4st bent at
2
0.15L
-
-
-
0.13L
-
-
-
0.11L
-
-
-
0.21L
0.09L
-
-
3
0.21L
0.09L
-
-
0.18L
0.08L
-
-
0.30L
0.19L
0.11L
-
0.27L
0.16L
0.09L
-
4
0.25L
0.15L
0.07L
-
0.22L
0.13L
0.05L
-
0.33L
0.24L
0.17L
0.11L
0.30L
0.2L
0.15L
0.09L
5
0.27L
0.19L
0.12L
0.05L
0.24L
0.15L
0.09L
0.04L
0.35L
0.28L
0.21L
0.16L
0.31L
024L
0.18L
0.13L
6
0.30L
0.21L
0.15L
0.09L
0.25L
0.18L
0.13L
0.08L
0.36L
0.30L
0.24L
0.19L
0.33L
027L
0.21L
0.16L