Review

摘要

The author, Professor Zhenhai Guo, is to be congratulated on attempting to give a comprehensive overview of reinforced concrete in a single volume. Here it should be noted that the book is based on the lecture notes used by Guo in various undergraduate and postgraduate courses at Tsinghua University, Beijing. Earlier versions, in Chinese, are used in many universities in China and this encouraged Guo to produce an English edition. This comprehensive 589-page book is made up of four parts and includes 20 chapters. Part 1 focuses on the mechanics of concrete as a material and includes information on multi-axial strength and various constituent relationships. Part 2 covers the interaction of concrete and reinforcement, including bond, the effects of confinement, shrinkage and creep. Part 3 considers the strength and deformation characteristics of different structural members and includes topics such as flexural stiffness and deformation, strength under shear forces and torsion. Part 4 gives a relatively concise overview of the resistance of reinforced concrete to seismic loading, fatigue, explosions and fire. There is also a short section on durability.