VSRD International Journal of Mechanical, Civil, Automobile and Production Engineering, Vol.

IV Issue III April 2014

e-ISSN : 2249-8303, p-ISSN : 2319-2208 VSRD International Journals : www.vsrdjournals.com

/ 37

REVIEW ARTICLE

A STUDY ON NON LINEAR STATIC ANALYSIS OF WAFFLE SLAB

USING PUSHOVER
1Aditi

Patidar* and 2Swatilekha Guha Bodh

1Research

Scholar, 2 Assistant Professor,1,2Department of Civil Engineering,

I.E.S. I.P.S. Academy, Indore, Madhya Pradesh, INDIA.
*Corresponding Author: er.aditipatidar@gmail.com

ABSTRACT
In spite of recent development in earthquake resistant engineering, earthquake still inflict widespread damage at various parts of the
world. The importance of structures to survive earthquake have been noticed from the experience of severe earthquakes. At present
various measures against the earthquakes are applied to the space structure. Pushover analysis has been widely used on earthquake
response prediction of building structures under severe earthquakes. It needs to be studied whether it is applicable for waffle slab
structures or not. In this paper, pushover analysis of waffle slab structures is introduced. The lateral loading pattern for waffle slab
structure is adapted to the pushover analysis. The seismic collapse capacity of waffle slab is to be determined with the help of
pushover by using ETAB 9.

Keywords: Waffle Slab, Pushover Analysis, Non-Linear Analysis.

1. INTRODUCTION
WAFFLE SLAB: Waffle slab is defined as combination
of flat flange plate or deck and equally spaced ribs. Two
way floor roof systems consisting of a reinforced concrete
slab poured with integral joists or ribs in two directions
beneath it. The system has a waffle-like pattern when a
reinforced concrete slab with equally spaced ribs parallel
to the sides, having a waffle appearance from below.
This system is an efficient and better way of constructing
slabs for new homes or industrial buildings. This is done

by interlocking components which ensure maximum

control of every concrete pour. It also allows for greater
accuracy of specifications of concrete quantities,
reduction of waste and provides a boost to building site
efficiency. It has minimum impacts on the environmentless soil disturbance, no excavated rubble from trenches
etc. The on-ground slab, with air pockets created by the
pods. Forms an insulating layer between the structure and
ground.

A waffle slab is the type of part of the building that has

two directional reinforcement, giving it the shape of the
pockets on a waffle. This type of reinforcement is
common on concrete, wood and metal construction. It
gives a substance significantly more stability without
using a lot of additional material. This makes a waffle
slab perfect for large area like foundations or floors. The
most common material for a waffle slab is concrete.

These slabs are used as the foundation for many different

types of building and structure, but are most common in
commercial or industrial buildings. Waffle foundations
are resistant to cracking and sagging and can hold a much
greater amount of weight than traditional concrete slab.
The top of the waffle slab is generally smooth, like a
traditional building surface, but the underside has a
reminiscent of a waffle straight lines run the entire with

Aditi Patidar and Swatilekha Guha Bodh

and length of the slab. A reinforced concrete slab with

equally spaced ribs parallel to the sides, having a waffle
appearance from below. They are a good way to build
thin and strong concrete slabs that use a lot less material.
They are more expensive to form than conventional flat
slabs, but because of their depth, architects can design
longer spans. Now Spanish architects Alarcon have
modified a waffle slab to fill it with holes so that services
can be run within the depth of the slab, reducing the floor
to floor height and getting some of that extra cost back by
putting hole through the web of the waffle, the services
are integrated into the floor depth of the slab. This
permits a reduction of exterior facade per floor of 10% to
20%; the use of waffles in the first place reduces the
number of columns or load bearing walls by 10-20%. It
adds up to greater efficiency and energy savings. Because
waffle slabs look good and break up sound reflections,
you can also save on suspended ceilings. Resembling the
food after which they are named, concrete waffle slabs
are reinforced concrete floor and roofs that use a square
grid of deep sides. This form of construction is used in
airports, parking garages, commercial and industrial
buildings, bridges residences and other structure requiring
extra stability. There are three basic designs for concrete
slabs that improve the strength-to-weight ratio. For each
design, the top surface is flat while the underside is
modulated with either a corrugated, ribbed or waffle
design. Corrugated slabs are created when concrete is
poured into a wavy metal form. This shape prevents the
slab from sagging. Ribbed slabs add strength in one
direction, while the concrete waffle slab design adds
strength in perpendicular directions. Concrete slabs can
be reinforced with rebar for additional strength.
PUSHOVER ANALYSIS: A pushover analysis is a
nonlinear static procedure where in monotonically
increasing lateral loads are applied to the structure till a
target displacement is achieved or the structure is unable
to resist further load structure.
Is a technique by which a structure is subjected to an
incremental lateral load of certain shape?
The structural deficiencies are observed and rectified.
The sequence of cracks, yielding, plastic hinge
formation and failure of various structural
components are noted.
The iterative analysis and design goes on until the
design satisfies pre-established criteria.
The performance criteria are generally defined as
Target - displacement of the structure at roof level.
Pushover Analysis in the recent years is becoming a
popular method of predicting seismic forces and
deformation demands for the purpose of performance
evaluation of existing and new structures. Pushover
analysis is a partial and relatively simple
intermediate solution to the complex problem of
predicting force and deformation demands imposed
on structures and their elements by severe ground
motion.
Pushover analysis provides valuable insights on many
response characteristics, like:
Consequences of strength deterioration of individual

VSRDIJMCAPE, Vol. IV (III) March 2014 / 38

element
Identification of critical regions in which the
deformation demands are expected to be high and
that have to become the focus of through detailing.
Identification of strength discontinuities in plan or
elevation that will lead to changes in dynamic
characteristics in the inelastic region.
Force Demand on Potentially brittle elements.
Verification of completeness and adequacy of load
path, considering all structural and non structural
elements of the structural system.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Documentation on waffle slab: Prasad et.al (2005) has
tried to elaborate the result obtained from the analytical
study carried out on waffle slab medium size floor system
with a view to achieve the optimum dimensions of rib
spacing, its depth and width. The waffle slab has been
considered as monolithically connected to band beams.
Feasibility of structural design of members has been
ensured under the provision of IS: 456-2000.
Mustafa et.al (2013) was carried out in order to
investigate the overall behavior of two-way composite
waffle slab under different conditions. Many encouraging
results and recommendations were obtained opening the
door for this new configuration of composite slabs. After
the selection of best finite element model and an
extensive parametric study in which many influencing
parameters such as slab aspect ratio, slab boundary
conditions, steel sheet depth, corrugation cell aspect ratio
and its orientation were tested.
Galeb et.al (2011) solved the problem of optimum design
of reinforced concrete (two way ribbed) waffle slabs
using genetic algorithms. Two case studies are discussed;
The first is a waffle slab with solid heads, and the second
is a waffle slab with band beams along column
centerlines. Direct design method is used for the
structural analysis and design of slabs. The cost function
represents the cost of concrete, steel, and formwork for
the slab. The design variables are taken as the effective
depth of the slab, ribs width, the spacing between ribs, the
top slab thickness, the area of flexural reinforcement at
the moment critical sections, the band beams width, and
the area of steel reinforcement of the beams.
Cahis et.al(2005) designed many structure during the
seventies, eighties and nineties according to earlier
seismic codes which required relatively small lateral
strength and did not contain any provision for attaining
ductility. Past earthquakes have raised serious concerns
about the safety of these structures in the case of a severe
earthquake. A numerical investigation is carried out to
evaluate the seismic demands on old RC waffle plate.
Systems located in southern Spain, in a moderate-to-high
seismicity region. A prototype building, designed
according to Spanish codes from the 1970s to 1990s and
current construction practices, was analysed with
SAP2000 by using a non-linear static method. The frame
model was equipped with user defined hinges based on

Aditi Patidar and Swatilekha Guha Bodh

testing. The low gravity shear ratio and the consideration

of punching reinforcement (a usual Spanish practice even
when it was not deemed necessary from calculation) lead
to a strong column/weak slab behaviour.
Ibrahim et.al (2011) is used numerical simulations using
ANSYS to study the response of waffle slabs with and
without openings. The main objectives of this paper are:
(1) to obtain the design coefficients for the column and
the field strips of the internal panel of a waffle slab and
(2) to study the effect of openings and stiffening ribs on
the design coefficients. Ninety Linear and non-linear
analysis models using ANSYS were performed in the
study to evaluate the response of various waffle slabs
under uniform loading. The main parameters evaluated
are the column size, the solid portion size, the opening
size and its location, and the effect of stiffener ribs
around the opening. The non-linear finite element model
was verified using existing experimental results for two
waffle slabs. The moment coefficients developed in this
paper were used to modify the existing ACI flat slab
coefficients to be used for waffle slabs.
Documentation on Pushover Analysis: Habibulla
(1998) has tried to focus on the parameters that have been
defined in ATC-40 and FEMA-273. The steps of
Pushover Analysis for creating the computer model,
running the analysis and finally concluding the results
have been incorporated by using SAP2000 as a tool.
Jingjiang et.al (2003) plotted seismic capacity curves of
three types of buildings including frame, frame-shear wall
and shear wall obtained by pushover analysis under
different lateral load patterns are compared with those
from nonlinear time history analysis.
Dutta et.al (2007) discussed and demonstrated an
alternative simple method known as Pushover Method,
which could be easily used by practicing engineers
bypassing intricate nonlinear dynamic analysis.
Kappos et.al (2004) presented a performance-based
design procedure for realistic 3D reinforced concrete
(R/C) buildings that involves the use of advanced
analytical tools. Depending
on the building
configuration, use of two alternative tools is suggested,
i.e. either time-history analysis for appropriately scaled
input motions, or inelastic static (pushover) analysis, both
for two different levels of earthquake loading. The
proposed method is then applied to a regular multistorey
reinforced concrete 3D frame building and is found to
lead to better seismic performance than the standard code
(Eurocode 8) procedure, and in addition leads to a more
economic design of transverse reinforcement in the
members that develop very little inelastic behavior even
for very strong earthquakes.
Jianmeng et.al. (2008) presented an improved Modal
Pushover Analysis (MPA) procedure to estimate the
seismic demands of structures, considering the
redistribution of inertia forces after the structure yields.
This improved procedure is verified with numerical
examples of 5-, 9- and 22-story buildings. It is concluded
that the improved MPA procedure is more accurate than

VSRDIJMCAPE, Vol. IV (III) March 2014 / 39

either the POA procedure or MPA procedure. In addition,

the proposed procedure avoids a large computational
effort by adopting a two-phase lateral force distribution.
It is being suggested that the pushover analysis (POA)
procedure is difficult to apply to high-rise buildings, as it
cannot account for the contributions of higher modes.
However, invariable lateral force distributions are still
adopted in the MPA.
Boumerkik et.al, (2008), after the Boumerdes earthquake
in 2003, conducted a non-linear static pushover analysis,
to evaluate the performance of framed buildings under
future expected earthquakes. They concluded by their
study that properly designed frames will perform well
under seismic loads.
Moghadam et.al (2000) used the procedure for an elastic
spectrum analysis of the building to obtain the target
displacements and load distributions for pushover
analyses. They conducted two-dimensional inelastic static
analyses on the lateral load resisting elements. To
investigate the efficiency of this method for different
types of eccentric buildings, three systems were studied.
The first model was a ductile moment resisting frame
building. The second model was a set-back building and
the last one was a wall-frame structure. Each building
was subjected to ten spectrum compatible time history
records as ground motion excitations at the base. The
means of the maximum responses of these buildings were
computed using three-dimensional inelastic dynamic
analyses and using the proposed procedure. A comparison
of the two sets of results demonstrates both the
capabilities and limitations of the proposed procedure.
Barros et.al (2004) proposed a simplified process of static
non-linear pushover analysis associated with Capacity
Spectrum Method, utilizing a load pattern proportional to
the shape of fundamental mode of vibration of structure.
The result of the Pushover Analysis, with the load
pattern, is very accurate for structures that respond
primarily in the fundamental mode.
Rofooei et.al (2007) introduced an adaptive pushover
analysis method to improve the accuracy of the
previously used pushover analysis in predicting the
seismic-induced dynamic demands of the structures.
Comparison of the common pushover analyses, adaptive
pushover analyses and time-history analyses performed
for a number of multiple-bay, short and high-rise steel
structures, demonstrated the efficiency of the proposed
method.
3. OBJECTIVE
To determine the collapse capacity of waffle slab by
pushover analysis
To analyse the waffle slab with panel and without
panels by using ETAB9
4. AUTHORS VIEW
On the basis of the literature available. The seismic
collapse capacity of various structures has been assessed

Aditi Patidar and Swatilekha Guha Bodh

but as far as waffle slab are concerned no work has been

reported. Pushover analysis has been applied to the
structures like r/c and steel framed structures, but not to
the waffle slab. In the present scenario, because of the
availability of the methods for the assessment of collapse
capacity, the accumulated understanding is still limited,
for the application of these methods to the waffle slab
structures. Thus there is a need of an attempt to
understand the way to find out the seismic collapse
capacity of waffle slab. The literature survey in the
performance and behavior of waffle slab when subjected
to seismic load suggests that the requirement of studying
the response of waffle slab to earthquake loads has
become essential. Therefore, on the basis of certain
objectives, study is to be performed for learning the
behavior of waffle slab under seismic type of loads. An
extensive survey of the literature on the response of
waffle slab to seismic loading shall be performed.

VSRDIJMCAPE, Vol. IV (III) March 2014 / 40

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5. CONCLUSION
The seismic collapse capacity of various structures has
been assessed but as far as waffle slab are concerned no
work has been reported.
Pushover Analysis has been applied to the structures like
R/C and steel framed structures, but not for waffle slab.

[20]

[21]

Prepared by the American Society of Civil Engineers for

the Federal emergency Management Agency, Washington,
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