International Journal of Advanced Engineering Research and Studies

E-ISSN22498974

Research Article
CALCULATION OF SHORT-TERM DEFLECTION FOR FIXED
SUPPORTED TWO-WAY RC SLABS
Varma Manish 1*, Pendharkar Dr. Umesh 2

Address for Correspondence

1

Research scholar, Department of Civil Engineering, UEC, Ujjain-456010, M.P., India,

2
Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, UEC, Ujjain-456010, M.P., India

ABSTRACT
In limit state design method the serviceability criteria are important because thickness depends on it. The economy of design
depends upon the thickness of slab. Hence deflection control, directly effects economical design of RC slabs. At present, in
different relevant codes clauses are there to control deflection. IS 456-2000 also deal with estimation of short-term and longterm deflections in RC members in general, but there is no particular formula for estimation of short-term and long-term
deflections in fixed supported two-way RC slab in particular. This paper reviews the methods for estimation of deflections in
RC members, suggested by IS 456, and reviews the literature pertaining the same, highlighting need of revision in the codal
provisions. The paper gives rational approach for estimating of short-term deflection in fixed supported two-way RC slabs.
The method considers load on the slabs as obtained by Rankin- Grashoffs methods. The deflection calculated in this way is
found to be more accurate as compared to other available methods. The results obtained have been found to be comparable
with experimental results available in the literature. The method has been designated as equivalent load method and found to
be more realistic for calculating short term deflection for fixed supported two way RC slabs.
KEYWORDS: Short-term deflection, Two-way RC slab, Equivalent load, Codal provisions.

INTRODUCTION
The deflections calculations in RC slabs are difficult
due to the non-homogeneity of the material, the
effects of cracking, and the time-dependent nature of
material response. In order to minimize the adverse
effects of deflections, different codes of practice
specify the deflections limits in RC slabs. In the
various building codes such as IS 456, ACI 318, AS
3600, BS 8110, EC 2, etc., gives the method to
calculate the deflections of RC beams and one way
slab, but that the calculated values lie within
permissible limits specified by codes. The type of
slab and support conditions plays important role in
Varma and Pendharkar (2010) presented a rational
approach for estimating short-term deflection in twoway RC slabs. The approach has been designated as
Equivalent Load Method. The deflections calculated
by this approach are found to be more accurate as
compared to those calculated by the other available
methods. Also the results obtained from Equivalent
Load Method have been found to be comparable with
experimental results. Sarkar P.G. (2008) had also
studied the different codal provisions and they
calculate the values of deflection for two-way RC
slabs using IS 456-2000. They had also shown that
the code provisions are not adequate to estimate
deflection of two-way RC slabs and that there is an
urgent need to modify to these provisions. Kollar
L.P. (2004) had given the new simple method for
deflection calculation of one-way RC slabs,
rectangular beams etc. but the method is not
applicable for two-way slabs.
Indian Standards Provision (IS 456-2000):
The IS 456-2000 gives the specification for
calculating total deflection of RC members as the
sum of short-term deflection and long-term deflation
in general. The total deflection shall be taken as the
sum of the short-term deflection determined in
accordance with Eqn. 1 and long-term deflection, in
accordance with. Eqn. 2 and Eqn. 3.
1 Short-term deflection
The short-term deflection may be calculated by the
usual methods for elastic deflection using the shortIJAERS/Vol. I/ Issue II/January-March, 2012/167-169

serviceability requirement of the slab i.e. deflection.

The serviceability criterion for both the slabs is same.
But for same loading and span, deflection is more for
one way slab. Deflection of one way slab can be
calculated using the formulae available in different
codes. But no direct formula is given in any of the
code for calculating deflections of two way slabs.
Moreover the formula given in IS 456 does not
specify the span and the loading to be considered for
calculating deflections in two way slab. The work
reviews the procedures for estimation of short-term
deflections in fixed supported two-way RC slabs.
LITERATURE REVIEW
term modulus of elasticity of concrete, Ec and an
effective moment of inertia Ieff give by the following
equation:

I eff =

Ir
; but
Mr z
x bw
1.2
1
M d d b

(1)

Where,
Ir = Moment of inertia of the gross section, Mr =
cracking moment, equal to

f cr I gr
yt

where fcr is the

modulus of rupture of concrete, Igr is the moment of

inertia of the gross section about the centroidal axis,
neglecting the reinforcement, and yt is the distance
from centroidal axis of gross section, neglecting the
reinforcement, to extreme fiber in tension, M =
Maximum moment under service load, z = Lever
arm, x = Depth of neutral axis, d = Effective depth,
bw = breadth of web, and b = Breath of compression
face.
For continuous beam, deflection shall be calculated
using the values of Ir, Igr and Mr modified by the
following equation:

X + X2
(2)
X e = k1 1
+ (1 k1 )X o
2

Where Xe = Modified value of X, X1, X2 = Values of

X at supports, Xo = Value of X at mid span, k1 =

International Journal of Advanced Engineering Research and Studies

Coefficient given in table 1, and X = Value of Ir, Igr or
Mr as appropriate.
Note k2 is given by
k2 =

M1 + M 2
M F1 + M F 2

(3)

where M1, M2 = Support moments, and MF1, MF2 =

Fifed end moments.
Table 1 Values of Coefficient, k1
2 Deflection due to shrinkage
The deflection due to shrinkage acs may be computed
from the following equation:
acs = k3 cs l
(4)
Where k3 is a constant depending upon the support
conditions, 0.5 for cantilevers, 0.125 for simply
supported members, 0.086 for members continuous at
one end and 0.063 for fully continuous members.
cs is shrinkage curvature equal to
2

k4

cs

(5)

Where cs is the ultimate shrinkage strain of concrete

p pc
(6)
k 4 = 0.7 t
1.0 for0.25 pt pc < 1.0
pt

= 0.65

pt pc
pt

1.0 forpt pc 1.0

(7)

Where,
Pt=

100 Ast
100 Asc
and Pc=
bd
bd

(8)
and D is the total depth of the section, and l is the
length of span.
3 Deflection due to creep
The creep deflection due to permanent loads acc(perm.)
may be obtained from the following equation:
acc(perm.) = ai,cc(perm.) ai(perm)
(9)
Where, ai,cc(perm.) = Initial plus creep deflection due to
permanent loads obtained using an elastic analysis
with an effective modulus of elasticity,
Ece =

Ec
;
1+

(10)

being the creep coefficient, and ai(perm) = short-term

deflection due to permanent load using Ec.
PROPOSED METHOD: EQUIVALENT LOAD
METHOD.
Is 456-2000 has given formulae for calculating
deflection in RC slabs. Pradip Sarkar, et. al. (15) had
revised the various methods and compares the results
with codal provisions. They had specified that the use
of formulae available in IS 456-2000 for calculating
deflection in RC two-way slabs results in prediction
of higher deflection than actual. In the following
section IS code method has been used for calculating
deflection in RC two-way slabs and three different
cases have been considered. In CASE-I, Total load
has been considered to be acting along longer span,
in CASE-II, Total load has been considered to be
acting along shorter span and finally in CASE-III,
equivalent loads consider to be acting along longer
IJAERS/Vol. I/ Issue II/January-March, 2012/167-169

E-ISSN22498974

and shorter span simultaneously. The deflection

calculation with equivalent load on shorter span has
been categories as CASE-III A and similarly
deflection calculation with equivalent load on longer
span has been designated as CASE-III B. This load in
which equivalent loads have been considered and
deflections have been calculated using IS codal
formulae is designated as Equivalent Load Method.
The equivalent loads along the two spans have been
calculated using Grashoff-Ranhine method. The
loads calculated along shorter span and along longer
span are given by following equations

wx =

wy =

w
l
1+ x
l
y
w

ly
1 +
lx

The three cases have been illustrated for fixed

supported two-way RC slab, the CASE-III has been
found be more near to practical values. The third case
is designated as Equivalent Load Method for
calculating the deflection in two-way RC slabs.
Example 1
Unyielding fixed supported slab of overall size 2314
mm 2314 mm 63.5 mm. On this slab I calculate
the deflation for deferent load as 20 KN/m2, 40
KN/m2, 60 KN/m2, 80 KN/m2, and 100 KN/m2.
1 CASE-I Total load along longer span
Deflection formula for simply supported and for
UDL. Eqn. 13
4

x1 =

1 wl x
384 EI eff

Where,
w = Uniform distributed load, lx = longer span, Ec=
Modulus of elasticity of concrete, and defined by

c = 5000 f ck As per IS 456-2000,

Ieff = Effective moment of inertia as per Eqn. 1.
2 CASE-II Total load along shorter span
Deflection formula for simply supported and for
UDL. Eqn. 14
4
1 wl y
y1 =
384 EI eff
3 CASE-III-A Equivalent load along longer span
Deflection formula for simply supported and for
UDL. Eqn. 15
4
1 wx l x
x2 =
384 EI eff
Where,
wx = Equivalent Uniform distributed load, As per
Eqn. 11
4 CASE-III-B Equivalent load along shorter span
Deflection formula for simply supported and for
UDL. Eqn. 16

y2

1 wyl y
=
384 EI eff

Where,

International Journal of Advanced Engineering Research and Studies

Wy = Equivalent Uniform distributed load, As per
Eqn. 12
The results for the example for the three cases have
been tabulated in Table 2. The test results available
for example and hence the example have been
considered Table 2 shows the deflection for different
load intensities on two-way simply supported RC
slabs for three cases and corresponding test results.
The load intensities considered for all the three cases
in example are 15 KN/m2, 30 KN/m2, 45 KN/m2, and
60 KN/m2. The table 3 shows the percentage
difference among calculated values of example for
three cases at different loads, with test values. The
comparison of results of the example for the three
cases with test values has been presented in fig. 1
Table No. 2 Deflection for Fixed supported twoway slab

fcr = modulus of rupture of concrete

Mcr= Cracking moment per unit width
Mxx = Maximum moment in the short span
M = Maximum moment under service load
z = Lever arm
x = Depth of neutral axis
d = Effective depth
bw = breadth of web
b = Breath of compression face
= deflection of the plate/slab

l = longer span length

w = uniform transverse load
REFERENCES
1.

2.

3.
4.

Table No. 3 Percentage difference of deflection for

Fixed supported two-way slab

5.

6.

Fig 1. Deflection for two-way Fixed supported

RC slab

7.

8.

9.
10.

11.

CONCLUSION
The comparative study shows that there are large
differences in the various recommendations to
calculate short-term deflection for RC two-way slabs.
The deflection calculation procedure based on
effective moment of inertia with different load
condition for three examples, procedure covered by
various codes and experimental results are discussed
and compared with each others. The main outcome
form present studies are:
1. The deflection calculation results by effective
moment of inertia with equivalent load along
longer span are nearer to experimental values
for all ranges of loading considered.
2. There is wide difference among the
experimental values and the recommendations
given by various codes for fixed supported
slabs.
3. Although all the national and international
codes give suggestions for deflection
calculation of two-way RC slabs, but overall
procedure is not clearly spelt out.
NOMENCLATURE
Ieff = Effective moment of inertia
Ig = Gross moment of inertia
Ec = Modulus of elasticity of concrete
fck = Characteristic strength of concrete

IJAERS/Vol. I/ Issue II/January-March, 2012/167-169

E-ISSN22498974

12.

13.

14.
15.

16.
17.

ACI Committee (2002) Building code requirements

for reinforced concrete and commentary ACI 31802/ACI 318R-02, American Concrete Institute, Detroit
Bischoff P.H., J. Compos. for Constr., Volume 11,
Issue 1, pp. 4-14 (January/February 2007) Deflection
Calculation of FRP Reinforced Concrete Beams Based
on Modifications to the Existing Branson Equation.
Branson, D. E. (1977) Deformation of Concrete
Structures, McGraw-Hill Book Co., NY
British Standard Institute (1997) Structural Use of
Concrete, Code of Practice for Design and
Construction, BS 8110 Part 1 and 2, British Standards
Institute
Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) (2000) Code of
practice for plain and reinforced concrete for general
building construction IS 456. BIS, New Delhi.
European committee of standardization (1992) Design
of concrete structures Euro code 2.
Gamble, W.L.; Sozen, M.A. and Siess, C.P. (1969)
Tests of a Two-way Reinforced Concrete Floor Slab,
Journal of Structural Division, ASCE, vol. 95, ST 6,
pp1073-1096.
Govind, M. (2006) Estimation of short-term
deflections in reinforced concrete two-way slabs, MS
Thesis, Indian Institute of Technology Madras,
Chennai, India.
Grashoff-Rankine,
R.C.C.
designs,
Laxmi
Publication., India.
Hung, T.Y. and Nawy, E.G. (1971) Limit strength and
serviceability factors in uniformly loaded, isotropically
reinforced two-way slabs, ACI Special Publication,
SP-30, 301-323
Kollar Laszlo P. New method for deflection control of
reinforced concrete beams and slabs according to Euro
code 2.
Kulkarni, A. B. (1976) Strength and behaviour of twoway rectangular reinforced concrete slabs, Ph.D.
Thesis, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian
Institute of Science, India
Pendharkar U., Varma M., Engineering and
Environmental Sciences Journal, Sandipani Academy
Ujjain M.P., Communicate Analysis of short-term
deflection for fixed two-way RC slabs
Punmia B.C., Mechanics of Materials, Laxmi
Publication., India.
Sarkar, P.; Govind; Menon, Devdas Estimation of
Short-term deflections in Two-way RC Slabs: Review
of Code Provisions, Indian Institute of Technology
Madras, Chennai, India.
Sherif A.G. and Walter H. D. Analysis and deflections
of reinforced concrete flat slabs.
Standards Australia (AS) (2001) Concrete Structures,
AS 3600, Standards Association of Australia, Sydney,
Australia