Introduction to Concrete

Design
Objectives
By the end of this session, you will be able to:
 State aims of design;

 Define different limit states for design;

 State different structural Euro codes;

 Define characteristic material strength and

loads for reinforced concrete design;

 State safety factors for materials and loads.

 Explain the procedure of structural design.

 Function

Objectives/
aims of
Structural
Design

Safety Economy
 Limit State Design
 Aim of design: to ensure the structure does not
become UNFIT for its intended function. In other
words, ensure the structure does not reach a limit
state (safe and serviceable).
 Most modern codes of practice are now based on the
limit state approach. Structural Euro codes are a limit
state code.
 The procedures of limit state design encourage the
designer to examine conditions which may be
considered as failure - referred to as limit states.
 Ultimate limit Collapse
state

Types of
Limit State

Deflection, Serviceability
cracking, limit state
vibration,
Durability
 Structural Eurocodes
 Structural Eurocodes (referred to as 'Eurocodes') are a set
of ten European Standards that contain common
structural rules for the design of buildings and civil
engineering structures.
 Structural Eurocodes are a harmonised set of documents
that should be used together.
 Structural Eurocodes are applicable to whole structures
and to individual elements of structures and cater for the
use of all the major construction materials such as
concrete, steel, timber, masonry and aluminium.
 EN 1990
Basis of
EN 1999 structural
design EN 1991
Design of
Actions on
aluminium
structures
structures

EN 1998 EN 1992
Design for Design of
earthquake concrete
resistance structures
Structural
Eurocodes
EN 1993
EN 1997
Design of
Geotechnic
steel
al design
structures
EN 1994
EN 1996 Design of
Design of composite
masonry EN 1995 steel and
structures Design of concrete
timber structures
structures
 Characteristic Values for Actions and
Materials
 Actions or simply loads applied to a structure can seldom be
defined with precision.
 Loads acting on structures may be greater than anticipated
because of unforeseen circumstances which may lead to an
increase in the general level of loading, errors in analysis,
errors during construction, etc.
 Another aspect of uncertainty in structural design is the
variability of structural materials, reflected in variations in
strength of structural elements.
 Material strength may be less than intended because of the
variability of manufacturing conditions during construction.
Characteristic Values for Actions and
Materials
 A realistic approach to overcome these uncertainties
is to design for characteristic values of loads and
strength.
 Characteristic loads are those loads which have an
acceptably small probability of not being exceeded
during the lifetime of the structure.
 Characteristic strength of a material is the specified
strength below which not more than a small
percentage (typically 5%) of the results of tests may
be expected to fall.
Characteristic Strength
 Characteristic strength is determined from
test results using statistical principles.
 The characteristic compressive strength fck of
concrete is the cylinder strength tested after
28 days (Class of concrete).
 The characteristic strength of reinforcing bars
is denoted by the yield strength fyk.
Characteristic Strength
Characteristic Strength
Frequency
of results
Normal Distribution

= Mean Strength

= Standard Deviation
5% of
results

Failure Strength

= Characteristic Strength
Characteristic Values for Actions
(Loads)
 However, at this stage, there are insufficient
data available to apply statistical principles to
loads.
 Characteristic Permanent Action (Dead load)
Gk: Are loads due to fixed weights of the
structure including the weight of walls,
columns, floor slabs, beams, roofs, finishes,
plaster etc. Dead loads is calculated from the
unit weights of materials as given in EC1 (EN
1991).
Characteristic Values for Actions
(Loads)
 Characteristic Variable Action (imposed load)
Qk: Are loads due to movable items. Imposed
loads depend upon the use of the structure,
domestic, storage, office, etc. EC1 (EN1991)
and the National Annexe contains list of
imposed loads that might be expected to
result from various classes of occupancy.
Design Values for Loads and
Materials
 Material strength may be less than intended because
of the variability of manufacturing conditions during
construction. Similarly, loads acting on structures
may be greater than anticipated because of
unforeseen circumstances which may lead to an
increase in the general level of loading, errors in
analysis, errors during construction, etc.
 To account for the above mentioned variability, two
safety factors are introduced: one for materials gm
and the other for loads gf.
 Safety
factors

One for One for

materials gm loads gf.

1.15 for 1.35 for 1.5 for

1.5 for
concrete
imposed
steel dead load load
 Design Values for Actions and
Materials
 In the limit state design, the design load is
obtained by multiplying the characteristic load by
the partial safety factor gf.
Design load = characteristic load * gf
 Similarly, the design strength is obtained by
dividing the characteristic strength by the partial
safety factor for the material gm:
Design strength = characteristic strength / gm
Concrete Material Properties
 The characteristic compressive strength fck of
concrete is the cylinder strength tested after
28 days.
 EC2 uses the characteristic cylinder strength
fck unlike BS 8110 which uses the
characteristic cube strength fcu :
fck  0.8 fcu
 in EC2, concrete classes are expressed as
C20/25, C30/37, C35/45 where the first
number is the cylinder strength and the
second number is the cube strength.
 Concrete Material Properties
 The design compressive strength of concrete for
flexure and axial loading is given by (Eq. 3.15):
fcd = acc fck /gm= 0.85 fck/1.5
= 0.567 fck
where acc = 0.85 from UK National Annex.
 The density of reinforced concrete is given as 25
kN/m3 in EN 1991-1-1.
 Steel Reinforcement Properties

 The design strength of steel reinforcement in tension and

compression fyd is given by
fyd = fyk / gm = fyk /1.15
where fyk is the characteristic yield strength and gm is the
material safety factor for steel reinforcement.
 The characteristic strength of high tensile reinforcement
used in UK should be taken as 500 N/mm2.
 The elastic modulus of steel reinforcement is 200 kN/mm2.
 Load factors for the ULS
 For buildings, where there is only one variable action, the
load factors for ultimate limit states may be obtained as
below:
Permanent action (Dead load) = 1.35 Gk
Variable action (Live/imposed load) =1.5 Qk
 Both permanent and variable actions can have an adverse
or beneficial effect on structures. The values given above
for adverse effect. However, if the effect of actions is
beneficial, the partial factor of safety for variable action
should be 0 and for permanent action 1.0.
 Structural Design Procedure

Step I: Structural calculations Step II: Design calculations

• Internal forces (bending • Strength/resistance

moments, shear forces, axial (moment, shear, axial force
forces, deflection resistance + limiting
• Ed = Design values of the deflection values).
effect of actions such as • Rd = Design values of the
internal design moment, corresponding resistance, for
shear,...etc example moment resistance,
shear resistance

Ed <= Rd