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Civil Engineering & Construction vocabulary · Concrete and Steel

Reinforced concrete

Meaning in civil engineering & construction, with examples

nounCore term

In civil engineering & construction, reinforced concrete means: Concrete with steel bars or mesh cast inside it. The concrete resists compression and the steel resists tension, so together they make strong beams, slabs and columns.

In Turkish: betonarme

How it is used

The standard structural system for most buildings in Turkey and in many other countries. It is usually shortened to RC on drawings and in reports: an RC frame, RC walls, RC design.

Example sentences

  1. The building has a reinforced concrete frame with brick infill walls.

  2. Reinforced concrete is cheaper than structural steel here, so we chose it for the car park.

Common collocations

  • reinforced concrete frame
  • reinforced concrete wall
  • RC design
  • reinforced concrete structure
  • concreteA building material made by mixing cement, water, sand and gravel. It is placed while wet and hardens into a strong, stone-like mass.
  • rebarShort for reinforcing bar: a steel bar with ribs on its surface, placed in concrete to resist tension and hold the concrete together.
  • concrete coverThe thickness of concrete between the surface and the nearest reinforcing bar. It protects the steel from corrosion and fire and helps it bond with the concrete.
  • structural steelSteel made into standard shapes such as I-beams, H-columns, angles and hollow sections, used to build frames for buildings, bridges and industrial structures.
  • columnA vertical structural member that collects loads from the beams and slabs above and carries them down to the foundations.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Concrete and Steel

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