What is Taiwan New RC, the new high-strength reinforced concrete?

1Background

As more tall buildings are built in Taiwan, conventional-strength concrete and reinforcement lead to ever larger lower-story column sections and ever denser reinforcement, affecting usable space and construction quality. Since the 2010s, the National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering and academia have promoted research on New RC, Taiwan's new high-strength reinforced concrete, which uses higher-strength materials to address this problem [9].

2Materials

New RC pairs high-strength concrete with high-strength reinforcement: SD685-grade longitudinal bars and SD785-grade transverse reinforcement, with concrete strengths well above the range commonly used in conventional design [9, 10]. With higher material strength, the same loads can be carried by smaller sections and less reinforcement.

3How design differs

High-strength concrete is more brittle in compression, so design parameters calibrated for normal-strength concrete cannot be carried over directly; confinement requirements and the ductility of columns under high axial load also need to be revisited [15, 16]. New RC therefore has its own design recommendations and modified parameters [10], and section analysis tools must calculate accordingly.

4Research resources

The National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering maintains a New RC section that compiles design guidelines, tests, and research results [9]; related research continues to appear in international journals [15, 16].

5How StructFlow supports it

The StructFlow calculation core derives from New RC research and has been verified by professors. Strength calculations for columns, walls, and circular columns use the New RC modified parameters, and New RC high-strength reinforcement grades can be selected directly.

References

1. Mander, J. B., Priestley, M. J. N., & Park, R. (1988). Theoretical stress-strain model for confined concrete. Journal of Structural Engineering, 114(8), 1804–1826. doi:10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9445(1988)114:8(1804)
2. Popovics, S. (1973). A numerical approach to the complete stress-strain curve of concrete. Cement and Concrete Research, 3(5), 583–599. doi:10.1016/0008-8846(73)90096-3
3. Whitney, C. S. (1937). Design of reinforced concrete members under flexure or combined flexure and direct compression. ACI Journal Proceedings, 33(3), 483–498. doi:10.14359/8429
4. ACI Committee 318. (2019). Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete (ACI 318-19) and Commentary (ACI 318R-19). American Concrete Institute. doi:10.14359/51716937
5. 內政部（Ministry of the Interior, Taiwan）. (2023). 建築物混凝土結構設計規範（Design Specifications for Concrete Structures of Buildings），112 年 8 月 10 日修正發布，113 年 1 月 1 日生效. nlma.gov.tw
6. 內政部（Ministry of the Interior, Taiwan）. (2023). 建築物基礎構造設計規範（Design Specifications for Foundations of Buildings），112 年 6 月 20 日修正發布，113 年 1 月 1 日生效. nlma.gov.tw
7. Mononobe, N., & Matsuo, H. (1929). On the determination of earth pressure during earthquakes. Proceedings of the World Engineering Congress, Vol. 9, Tokyo, 177–185.
8. Sutherland, I. E., & Hodgman, G. W. (1974). Reentrant polygon clipping. Communications of the ACM, 17(1), 32–42. doi:10.1145/360767.360802
9. National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering (NCREE). 台灣新型高強度鋼筋混凝土（Taiwan New RC）專區. ncree.niar.org.tw/service/newrc
10. Chiu, C.-K., Hung, C.-C., Lin, K.-C., Liu, K.-Y., Lee, H.-J., Cheng, M.-Y., et al. (2019). Design Guideline for Building of High-Strength Reinforced Concrete Structures (Draft), NCREE-19-001. National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering.
11. Hung, C.-C., & Li, S.-H. (2013). Three-dimensional model for analysis of high performance fiber reinforced cement-based composites. Composites Part B: Engineering, 45(1), 1441–1447. doi:10.1016/j.compositesb.2012.08.004
12. Hung, C.-C., El-Tawil, S., & Chao, S.-H. (2021). A review of developments and challenges for UHPC in structural engineering: Behavior, analysis, and design. Journal of Structural Engineering, 147(9), 03121001. doi:10.1061/(ASCE)ST.1943-541X.0003073
13. Shao, Y., Kuo, C.-W., & Hung, C.-C. (2021). Seismic performance of full-scale UHPC-jacket-strengthened RC columns under high axial loads. Engineering Structures, 243, 112657. doi:10.1016/j.engstruct.2021.112657
14. Hung, C.-C., Kuo, C.-W., & Shao, Y. (2021). Cast-in-place and prefabricated UHPC jackets for retrofitting shear-deficient RC columns with different axial load levels. Journal of Building Engineering, 44, 103305. doi:10.1016/j.jobe.2021.103305
15. Ou, Y.-C., Alrasyid, H., Haber, Z. B., & Lee, H.-J. (2015). Cyclic behavior of precast high-strength reinforced concrete columns. ACI Structural Journal, 112(6), 839–850. doi:10.14359/51687911
16. Shen, W.-C., & Hwang, S.-J. (2023). Confinement reinforcement of high-strength reinforced concrete tied columns under high axial load. ACI Structural Journal, 120(3), 145–155. doi:10.14359/51738505

Further reading