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Design of Reinforced Concrete Slabs

Code of Practice - EC2 Design of concrete structures
Introduction
Reinforced concrete slabs are used in floors, roofs and walls in
buildings and as the deck of bridges. The floor system of a structure
can take many forms such as in situ solid slabs, ribbed slabs or precast units. Slabs may span in one direction or two directions and they
may be supported on monolithic concrete beams, steel beams, walls or
directly by the structures columns.
Continuous slabs should in principle be designed to withstand the most
unfavourable arrangements of loads, in the same manner as beams.
Slabs may be analysed using following methods.
- using bending moment and shear force coefficients
- yield line method
- finite element method

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One way spanning slabs

If these coefficients are used the reinforcement must be of ductility

class B or C and the neutral axis depth x 0.25*d and lever arm z
0.9*d to allow for moment re-distribution incorporated in the values
given (which may be up to 20%). These coefficients should only be
used when there are at least 3 spans that do not differ in length by
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more than 15%, and Qk Min [1.25Gk,
5kN/m2]
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Two way spanning slabs

The moments in slabs spanning in two directions can also be

determined using tabulated coefficients. Slabs which are not
rectangular in plan or which support an irregular loading arrangement
may be analysed by techniques such as the yield line method or the
Hileborg strip method.
Concrete slabs are defined as members where the breadth is not less
than 5 times the overall depth and behave primarily as flexural
members with the design similar to that of beams and somewhat
simpler because,
- the breadth of the slab is already fixed and a unit breadth of 1m
is used in the calculations.
- the shear stresses are usually low in a slab except when there are
heavy concentrated loads
- compression reinforcement is seldom required
Deflection requirements are usually

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B.Sc.Eng (Hons), C Eng,
dominate
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Shear in slabs

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B.Sc.Eng (Hons), C Eng,
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Compared with the beams, shallow slabs fail at slightly high shear and
this is incorporated into the values of the ultimate concrete shear
resistance , VRd,c. Since shear stresses in slabs subject to uniformly
distributed loads are generally small, shear reinforcement will seldom
be required and it would be usual to design the slab such that the
design ultimate shear force VEd is less than the shear strength of the
unreinforced section, VRd,c. In this case it is not necessary to provide
any shear reinforcement.

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B.Sc.Eng (Hons), C Eng,
MIE(SL)

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Punching shear analysis and design

A concentrated load on a slab causes shearing stresses on a section
around the load; this effect is referred to as punching shear. The
critical surface for checking punching shear is located at 2.0d from the
loaded area.

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If reinforcement is required to resist shear around the control

perimeter it should be placed between not more than 0.5d from the
loaded area and a distance 1.5d inside the outer control perimeter at
which shear reinforcement is no longer required.
Length of outer perimeter =
If this length is less than 3d from the face of the loaded area , then
reinforcement should be placed in the zone between 0.3d and 1.5d
from loaded face.
Vertical links will normally be used and provided around at least two
perimeters not more than 0.75d apart. Link spacing around a
perimeter within 2d of the face of the loaded area should not be
greater than 1.5d, increasing to a limit of 2.0d at greater perimeters.
Provided that the slab is greater than 200mm thick overall then the
amount of reinforcement required is given as follows:

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Span-effective depth ratios
Excessive deflections of slabs will cause damage to the ceiling, floor
finishes or other architectural finishes. To avoid this, limits are set on
the span-depth ratio. As a slab is usually a slender member, the
restrictions on the span-depth ratio become more important and this
can often control the depth of slab required.

Minimum effective depth = span/(basic ratio x correction factor)

The correction factors account for slab type and support conditions as
well as cases of spans greater than 7m and for flat slabs greater than
8.5m. The basis ratio may also be corrected to account for grades of
steel other than grade 500 and for when more reinforcement is
provided than that required for design at the ultimate limit state.
It may normally be assumed that, in using available tables, slabs are
lightly stressed although a more exact determination can be made
from the graph when the percentage of tension reinforcement is know.
In the case of two-way spanning slabs, the check on the span-effective
depth ratio should be based on the shorter span length. This does not
apply to flat slabs where the longer span should be checked.

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Flat Slab Floors
A flat slab floor is a reinforced concrete slab supported directly by
concrete columns without the use of intermediary beams. The slab
may be of constant thickness throughout or in the area of the column
it may be thickened as a drop panel. The column may also be of
constant section or it may be flared to form a column head or capital.

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The flat slab floor has many advantages over the beam and slab floor.
The simplified formwork and the reduced storey heights make it more
economical. The absence of sharp corners gives greater fire resistance
as there is less danger of the concrete spalling and exposing the
reinforcement. Deflection requirements will generally govern slab
thickness which should not normally be less than 180mm for fire
resistance as indicated in table below.

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The analysis of a flat slab structure may be carried out by dividing the
structure into a series of equivalent frames. The moments in these
frames may be determined by
- a method of frame analysis such as moment distribution, or the
stiffness method on a computer:
- A simplified method using the moment and shear coefficients from
the tables subject to the following requirements;
i. the lateral stability is not dependent on the slab-column
connections.
ii. there are at least three rows of panels approximately equal span
in the direction being considered.
iii. the bay size exceeds 30m2

Interior panels of the flat slab should be divided as shown in figure

below. Drop panels should be ignored if their smaller dimension is less
than one-third of the smaller panel dimension. If a panel is not square,
strip widths in both directions are based on smaller panel dimension.
Moments determined from a structural analysis or the coefficients from
the previously presented tables are distributed between the strips as
shown in following tables.
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Column moments can be calculated from the analysis of the equivalent

frame. Particular care is needed over the transfer of moments to edge
columns. This is to ensure that there is adequate moment capacity
within the slab adjacent to the column since moments will only be able
to be transferred to the edge column by a strip of slab considerably
narrower than the normal internal panel column strip width.
The reinforcement for a flat slab should generally be arranged
according to the simplified rules but at least 2 bottom bars in each
orthogonal direction should pass through internal columns to enhance
robustness.
In considering punching shear, EC2 places additional requirements on
the amount and distribution of reinforcement around column heads to
ensure that full punching shear capacity is developed.

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Stair Slab

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Problem 1
A 260mm thick slab of class C25/30 concrete is reinforced by 12mm
high yield bars at 125mm centres in each direction. The slab is subject
to a dry environment and must be able to carry a localized
concentrated ultimate load of 650kN over a square area of 300mm
side. Determine the shear reinforcement required for fyk = 500N/mm2

Problem 2
The four span slab shown in figure below supports a variable load of
3kN/m2 plus floor finishes and a ceiling load of 1.0kN/m2. Design the
slab using fck = 25N/mm2, fyk = 500N/mm2.

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B.Sc.Eng (Hons), C Eng,
MIE(SL)

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Problem 3
The slab is 220mm thick and spans in two directions. The effective
span in each direction is 4.5m and 6.3m and the slab supports a
variable load of 10kn/m2. Design the slab using fck = 25N/mm2, fyk =
500N/mm2.

Problem 4
The columns are at 6.5m centres in each direction and the slab
supports a variable load of 5kN/m2. The characteristic material
strengths are fck=25N/mm2 and fyk = 500N/mm2.
It is decided to use a floor slab as shown in figure below with 250mm
overall depth, and drop panels 2.5m square by 100mm deep. The
column heads are to be made 1.2m diameter.

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B.Sc.Eng (Hons), C Eng,
MIE(SL)