【正文】
idges, liquid containers, thin shells and prefabricated members of reinforced concrete were concrete were constructed by 1920. The era of linear and circular prestressing began.. Reinforced concrete, because of its low cost and easy availability, has bee the staple material of construction all over the world. Up to now, the quality of concrete has been greatly improved and the range of its utility has been expanded. The design approach has also been innovative to giving the new role for reinforced concrete is to play in the world of construction. The concrete monly used today has a pressive strength of 20~40MPa. For concrete used in prestressed concrete the pressive strength may be as high as 60~80MPa. The reinforcing bars monly used today has a tensile strength of 400MPa, and the ultimate tensile strength of prestressing wire may reach 1570~1860Pa. The development of high strength concrete makes it possible for reinforced concrete to be used in highrise buildings, offshore structures, pressure vessels, etc. In order to reduce the dead weight of concrete structures, various kinds of light concrete have been developed with a density of 1400~1800kg/m3. With a pressive strength of 50MPa, light weight concrete may be used in load bearing structures. One of the best examples is the gymnasium of the University of Illinois which has a span of 122m and is constructed of concrete with a density of 1700kg/m3. Another example is the two 20story apartment houses at the XiBianMen in Beijing. The walls of these two buildings are light weight concrete with a density of 1800kg/m3. The tallest reinforced concrete building in the world today is the 76story Water Tower Building in Chicago with a height of 262m. The tallest reinforced concrete building in China today is the 63story International Trade Center in GuangZhou with a height a height of 200m. The tallest reinforced concrete construction in the world is the 549m high International Television Tower in Toronto, Canada. He prestressed concrete Tsection simply supported beam bridge over the Yellow River in Luoyang has 67 spans and the standard span length is 50m. In the design of reinforced concrete structures, limit state design concept has replaced the old allowable stresses principle. Reliability analysis based on the probability theory has very recently been introduced putting the limit state design on a sound theoretical foundation. Elasticplastic analysis of continuous beams is established and is accepted in most of the design codes. Finite element analysis is extensively used in the design of reinforced concrete structures and nonlinear behavior of concrete is taken into consideration. Recent earthquake disasters prompted the research in the seismic resistant reinforced of concrete structures. Significant results have been accumulated. 3. SPECIAL FEATURES OF THE COURSE Reinforced concrete is a widely used material for construction. Hence, graduates of every civil engineering program must have, as a minimum requirement, a basic understanding of the fundamentals of reinforced concrete. The course of Reinforced Concrete Design requires the prerequisite of Engineering Mechanics, Strength of Materials, and some if not all, of Theory of Structures, In all these courses, with the exception of Strength of Materials to some exte