Strength at Diagonal Cracking under Uniform Load

This note presents an analysis by which the cracking strength may be evaluated independent of the location of the critical section. The approach is essentially statistical. The diagonal cracking load is a function of the following variables: 1) the total diagonal cracking load on the beam; 2) the effective depth of the beam; 3) length of span; 4) width of beam; and 5) tensile reinforcement. The analysis suggests that the reinforced concrete beams under uniform load exhibit the same behavior up to diagonal cracking.