Week 8 and 9: Structures Retaining Aqueous Liquids Advanced Concrete Structures

STRUCTURES RETAINING AQUEOUS LIQUIDS

Contents

1. LEARNING OUTCOMES ........................................................................................................................... 1

2. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................ 1
3. MAIN ISSUES WITH STRUCTURES RETAINING AQUEOUS LIQUIDS............................................. 1
4. EXCERPT FROM BOOK [3] ....................................................................................................................... 4
5. EXERCISES ............................................................................................................................................... 16
References ............................................................................................................................................................ 16

1. LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of this lesson, the student should be able to:

Appreciate the differences between the design of structures retaining aqueous liquids
and typical reinforced concrete structures; and
Design tanks retaining aqueous liquids.

2. INTRODUCTION

1. This chapter covers the design of tanks, reservoirs or vessels (hereby collectively
referred to as tanks) retaining water or those retaining effluents in sewage treatment
plants. BS 8007: 1987: Code of practice for Design of concrete structures for retaining
aqueous liquids [1] will be used for this purpose together with BS 8110-1: 1997 [2]. BS
8007 [1] does not cover the design of dams, pipes, pipelines, lined structures or the
damp-proofing of basements.

2. The code is based on limit state principles, but the design is usually governed by the
serviceability limit state conditions of limiting crack widths rather than by ultimate limit
state considerations.

3. MAIN ISSUES WITH STRUCTURES RETAINING AQUEOUS LIQUIDS

1. For tanks located above ground, the factors of safety for loads to use are the same as
those in Table 2.1 of BS 8110 [2]. For tanks located below ground, there is a possibility
of floatation of empty tanks due to the uplift force from ground water pressure.
Therefore, the dead weight of the tanks should exceed the uplift force, during
construction and in service, with a factor of safety of at least 1.1.

2. At the serviceability limit state, the maximum crack width due to direct tension and
flexure, or restrained temperature and moisture effects should be limited to 0.2 mm in
case of severe or very severe exposure (see Table 3.2 of BS 8110) or to 0.1 mm when the
aesthetics is critical. For prestressed concrete structures, the crack width is limited by the
permissible tensile stress following the prestress Class of the structure.

3. The deflections of the vertical cantilever walls of tanks are controlled by ensuring the
span/effective depth ratios are limited to 7 (see Table 3.9 of BS 8110). However, as the
horizontal loading on the wall is hydrostatic rather than uniform and that the
depth/thickness of the wall may taper towards the top, the reductions in Table 1 are
necessary, with linear interpolation if required.

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Table 1 Reduced span/effective depth ratios for tapered cantilever walls

(Wall) Depth top / Depth bottom Span/effective depth ratios

1.0 7
0.6 7
0.3 5.46

4. Clause 2.7.6 of BS 8007 specifies that the nominal cover should not be less than 40 mm.
Also note that, particularly in sections less than 300 mm thick, increasing the cover will
lead to an increase in crack width.

5. Clause 6.3 of BS 8007 specifies that the 28-day characteristic cube strength should not
be less than 35 MPa. This is classed as grade C35A, a grade not in accordance with BS
8110. With normal concrete, more cement than normal would be required, which is not
ideal. Hence, alternatives such as including additions (GGBS or PFA), including
admixtures (such as plasticisers) or altering the water-cement ratio may be used.
Ultimately, the maximum cement content (if OPC) is used, should not exceed 400 kg/m3.

6. The minimum reinforcement percentage is 0.64% for grade 250 steel and 0.35% for
grade 460 steel. They are provided as follows:
a. For walls and suspended slabs and where total depth 500 mm, the required
reinforcement is calculated for the entire depth and this area is divided equally to
both faces of the structure. For similar with total depth > 500 mm, the required
area is calculated for the outer 250 mm depth of concrete and this area is divided
equally to both faces of the structure.
b. For ground slabs and where:
i. Total depth < 300 mm, the minimum area is calculated on the top half of the
slab only. No reinforcement is provided for the bottom half of the slab in
contact with the ground.
ii. Total depth 300 < 500 mm, provide reinforcement for the top half of the
slab as in (i) above, and in addition, calculate the reinforcement for the 100 mm
depth of slab in contact with the ground.
iii. Total depth > 500 mm, provide reinforcement as for (ii) above, but the depth
of the upper half is limited to 250 mm only.

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4. EXCERPT FROM BOOK [3]

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5. EXERCISES

The cantilever wall of a rectangular water tank retaining water to a depth of 2.5 m has a
base that is 300 mm thick. Both the wall and the base are reinforced with 12 mm
diameter bars at 150 mm c/c. Determine the stresses in the concrete and steel at the SLS
at the most critical part of the wall and check if the moment of resistance is sufficient at
the ULS. Take fcu = 35 MPa, fy = 460 MPa, = 15 and cover = 40 mm. Next, determine
the design crack width at that same critical location.

References

[1] British Standards Institution. Code of practice for Design of concrete structures for
retaining aqueous liquids (BS 8007: 1987) 1987.
[2] British Standards Institution. Structural Use of Concrete - Part 1: Code of practice for
design and construction (BS 8110-1: 1997). Inc Amend Nos 1- 4 2007:168.
[3] Bhatt P, MacGinley TJ, Choo BS. Reinforced Concrete: Design Theory and Examples.
Third. Oxford and New York: Taylor and Francis; 2006.

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