Assessment of Deviation in Quality of Steel Reinforcing Bars Used in Some Building Sites in Cameroon

Abstract

The present work evaluated the deviations in the quality of steel reinforcing bars in terms of markings, diameter, yield strength and ductility in order to facilitate the drawing up of a yield strength value for the Cameroon National Annex to Eurocode 2. The methodology of the work started with the collection of steel samples from various active building project sites in four different towns viz: Bamenda, Douala, Maroua and Yaoundé and testing their tensile strength and elongation using a Universal Testing Machine and also carrying out the bending test. Results show that bars without marked manufacturer’s name fell all the tests. Other results show that 52% of all the steel had yield stresses below 400 Mpa and the highest deviation in the yield strengths was 22.50%. The study recommends that properly marked grade 500 steel bars should be adopted in the Cameroon national annex to Eurocode 2.