Does anyone know what flexural failure means with regards to concrete beams?
The term flexural failure with regards to concrete beams can have two distinct mechanisms. Concrete beams are reinforced with reinforcing steel bars located in the tension zones of the beam. Concrete is assumed not to take any tension, but is good at resisting compression. The current American Concrete Institute Code (ACI) requires that the beam be reinforced such that failure is initiated by tension yielding of the rebar rather than the explosive crushing of the concrete in compression. The reason for this code requirement stem from the fact that it is a more benign way for the beam to fail. It will be noticed as a sagging or deflecting beam element well before the steel rebar fails completely, whereas the crushing failure of concrete will give no warning and could be catastrophic in terms of life and safety of the public.
