Reinforced concrete columns for highway structures. Literature review and verification programs VARCOLS

This report includes a survey of published literature on reinforced concrete columns, covering mainly the period from 1955 to 1981. The available information has been reviewed under three headings: predominantly theoretical research, methods of design, and tests on reinforced concrete columns. Most of the test data available on slender reinforced concrete columns, and a small fraction of those on short columns, have been used to verify a computer program VARCOLS, which was originally written and verified for composite columns, but is also suitable for slender reinforced concrete columns. The comparisons show that the program predicts the ultimate strength safely in almost all cases. The mean coefficient of correlation is 1.32 with a standard deviation of 0.26, which indicates that the program is satisfactory for the purposes of further analytical study.