A built-up virtual laboratory to enhance understanding of concrete structure design requirement

In this paper, simulation tools for educational purposes are developed to enhance understanding in undergraduate students taking courses related to concrete structural behavior. As undergraduate students learn about concrete structure, they commonly reach limits regarding their understanding of failure behavior in materials. Design codes should therefore be followed when students learn about reinforced concrete (RC) design. Students are able to follow a step-by-step design procedure for a RC beam using simple calculations. However, they usually then face some requirement, such as a design code, that requires students to make an RC beam with several pieces of rebar instead of one piece, because this provides a more desirable behavior for the RC structure. Understanding why the code is required needs more than just reading. By conducting an experiment, students can easily understand the reason for the code. However, real experiments for concrete structures are time-consuming and costly; therefore, provision of a realistic simulation tool, the 'Virtual Concrete Structure Laboratory,' for engineering educational purposes allows students to obtain virtual hands-on experience to learn about concrete structure. The main purpose of this paper is to show the effectiveness of this virtual lab in civil engineering education.