Re: Would welding the steel in re-enforced concrete add any value?

[BigWallop]

Hi Jon,

The bars are normally tied together with wire to allow them movement. I think welding would make them to rigid and could probably cause problems.

[Andy Dingley]

They're not. The point of steelwork in concrete is to compress the concrete by pre-tensioning the steelwork. For this you can treat each steel rod as a piece of flexible string - it doesn't matter what happens, so long as it supports this tension. So any attempt to weld the steel and make it "stiffer" as a structure is basically pointless.

Steel is often pre-welded into a grid, but that's just for convenience in handling. Similarly the use of wire ties to hold it in the right position.

[Andrew Heggie <andrew.heggie]

I knew it was to add tensile strength but thought the compressing function was only in pre stressed concrete.

AJH

[Andy Dingley]

Yes, _pre-_tensioning was inaccurate wording on my part. That's just if they're tensioned whilst curing. The others only come into force if there's a tensile force or bending moment applied to the concrete.