Tutorials for Holistic Exam

Structural Engineering Module

Structural Engineering III

 Contents
• Structural Engineering 3 – Week 1
• Structural Engineering 4 – Week 2
• Construction materials – Week 3
• Structural Engineering 1 & 2 – Week 4

Structural Engineering III

 Structural Engineering III
Limit state design of RC components

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 To assess the strength of one particular mix
proportion of concrete, EBCS 2 specifies the use
of characteristic compressive strength values.
 Characteristic compressive strength of concrete
is defined as that strength below which 5% of all
possible strength measurements may be
expected to fall.
 It means that the characteristic strength has
95% reliability or there is only 5% probability of
actual strength being less than the characteristic
strength. Thus concrete is graded in terms of its
characteristic compressive cube strength.
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 Table 2.1. Permissible grades of concrete
Class Permissible Grades of Concrete
C5 C15 C20 C25 C30
I
C40 C50 C60
II C5 C15 C20

• As per EBCS 2, compressive strength of concrete is

determined from tests on 150 mm cubes at the age of 28 days
• Cylindrical or cubical specimens of other sizes may also be
used with conversion factors determined from a
comprehensive series of tests. In the absence of such tests,
the conversion factors given in Table 2.2 (of EBCS 2) may be
applied to obtain the equivalent characteristic strength on
the basis of 150 mm cubes.
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 Table 2.2 Conversion factors for strength
Size and type of test Conversion factor
specimen
Cube (200 mm) 1.05
Cylinder (150 mm diameter, 1.25
300 mm height)

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 Table 2.3 Characteristic cylinder compressive strength
of concrete
Grades of C15 C20 C25 C30 C40 C50 C60
concrete
fck 12 16 20 24 32 40 48

What is the reason for reduction of characteristic strength to

design strength of concrete and steel?
Tests to determine the characteristic strengths of concrete and
steel reinforcement are carried out on near perfect specimens,
which have been prepared under laboratory conditions. Such
conditions will seldom exist in practice. Therefore it is
undesirable to use characteristic strengths to size the members.
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• Concrete’s design strength is obtained by twice reducing the
characteristic value ie by 0.85 and by dividing by partial safety
factor. 0.85 accounts for sustained effect of loading over time.
• Characteristic loads are increased to design loads
• Characteristic strength of materials are reduced to design
strengths
• Why steels’ design strength is less reduced from its
characteristic value while concrete’s design strength is
obtained after greater reduction from its characteristic value?
• The difference in values of the design strength for the two
materials is indicative of the comparative lack of control over
the production of concrete, the strength of which is affected by
such factors as W/C ratio, degree of compaction, rate of drying
etc. which frequently cannot be accurately controlled on site to
that of steel which is produced under strict control conditions
in factory.
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• Why load combinations are necessary in design
process?
The possibility of different loads to act
together at a time with relative differences in
their intensities have to be ascertained by the
load combinations
• Parabolic – rectangular stress-strain diagram

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 C Parabolic – rectangular stress block
Reduction to a rectangular stress block

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 b

x C
d h d Z = d - 0.4x

Cross section Strain distribution Idealised stress block

T = As fs C = 0.8x b fcd Mu = Tz = Cz
Tension failure: Under-reinforced
section
If steel’s design stress fyd is reaching
before the concrete reaches its maximum
strain εcu = 0.0035 the failure is tension
failure. Structural Engineering III
Compression failure: Over reinforced section
If As is large, concrete fails under compression
prior to steel reaching its design yield value.
The section is over-reinforced.

Balanced failure: Balanced section

In a balanced failure, steel reaches fyd and
concrete reaches a strain of 0.0035
simultaneously.

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• Steel ratio = As/bd
• If ρ < ρb; x < xb --The section is under-reinforced.
• If ρ >ρb; x > xb --The section is over-reinforced.
• LS design does not advocate over reinforced
sections by controlling the depth of NA
• Cover to reinforcements – based on exposure
condition
• For flexural members the depth is decided based
on deflection resistance and moment resistance

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• If As is the area of steel, number of certain dia
of reinforcement required = As/πd2/4
• A doubly reinforced section can be a over
reinforced or under reinforced or balanced
• But all over reinforced sections need not be
doubly reinforced sections
• All the limiting sections after allowing any
percentage redistribution of moments are
under reinforced sections
• Why under reinforced section is considered
better than over reinforced section?
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• The T section provides a large concrete cross-
section of the flange to resist compressive
stresses due to large positive bending
moments.
• If the loading is vertical and bending moment
at the support section is hogging & at the
span portion if it is sagging
In support section tension
reinforcement at the top

In span section tension

reinforcement at the
bottom
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• Bending moment changes its sign at point of
contra-flexure
• Theoretically up to the points of contra-
flexures the reinforcements are enough to be
provided
• But anchorage is required for safety with
respect to bond resistance
• If As is the area of steel required as per the
calculations, the steel rods to be used can be
of same diameter or of different diameters
even
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• Consider As = 1050 mm2
• Use 16 mm and 12 mm dia rods to use in a beam
section
• Number of 16 mm dia rods = 1050/π162/4 = 5.2
numbers ie 6 numbers
• Number of 12 mm dia rods = 1050/π122/4 = 9.2
numbers ie 10 numbers
• If we combine 16 and 12 dia rods with some numbers,
the exact requirement can be met, without more
affecting the cost
• Try 2 numbers of 12 mm diameter As = 226.18 mm2 if
so remaining area = 1050 – 226.18 = 823.82mm2
• Number of 16 mm dia rods = 823.82/ π162/4 = 4.09
• Hence 2-12φ and 4-16φ is preferrable instead of
having only one diameter rods
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• The number of rods in the adjacent spans and the
diameter of rods available in the market can influence
the economic way of providing the reinforcements as
explained above.
• A thumb rule to check the economy is 0.9 <
Ascal/Asprov < 1
• Proportioning the cross section of beam members
shall be based on span, load, number of storeys and
engineer’s experience
 Number of storeys can influence sizing of members
at different storey levels as difference in stiffness
between the columns and beams should not be
exagerated
• For instance consider a residential building having a
typical floor panel of 4 m * 5 m. For such a panel size,
the beam cross section may be 200mm * 280mm
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 Shear in beams

II III I III II
I – Region of flexural cracks
II – Region of diagonal tension
crack
III – Region of flexure-shear crack

Principal plane

fb fb fb t p  fb

Element at mid span section

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 v v Principal plane

v v v cp   v

450
tp  v
v
Element at end section tp  v
450

Shear resistance of RC beam without shear reinforcement

A
Shear force Vcz
Longitudinal
Reinforcement B
Aggregate interlock
force Va

C
Dowel force Vd
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• For beams with shear reinforcements, Total
shear V to be resisted is
V = Vcz + Vay + Vd + Vs
• Where, Vs = Shear to be resisted by the
stirrups.
• Here, (Vcz + Vay + Vd) = Vc = Shear resisted by
concrete
• Therefore, total shear to be resisted is
V = V c + Vs
• Stirrups are required to be designed to carry
shear above the capacity of concrete.
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• V < VRd
• Reinforcement for resisting Vs should be
provided if V > Vc
• The section of critical shear is located at d
(effective depth) distance from the face of
support
• Up to such a d distance the beam portion
acts together with column solidly.

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 Shear stirrups
• Vertical Stirrups: Most commonly used
• Inclined stirrups: Cannot be used where
beams resist shear reversal such as buildings
resisting seismic loads.
• Bent up bars: Almost disappeared. Possess
same disadvantage like inclined stirrups and
additional disadvantage is the difficulty in
bar bending.

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 Vertical stirrups

Inclined Stirrups

Crack propagation

Bent up bars

Crack propagation

Crack propagation

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• Generally, at the supports the shear stirrups
used to be denser while at the span portion
the shear stirrups spacing used to be larger
due to less requirement of shear
reinforcements at the span portion.
• Where there is no shear reinforcement
required ie the shear force is resisted by the
concrete and dowelling action of main
reinforcement only, a minimum shear
reinforcement according to the code
provision has to be provided.
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• Minimum shear reinforcement as per EBCS 2
is 0.4 Av
ρ min  ρ min 
fyk b wS
• Calculation based on the above formulae
shall be practiced to find the spacing of
stirrups

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 Bond and development length
• The shear stress in between the steel and
concrete interface is called bond stress
• Bond stresses arise from two situations:
(1) By anchorage or development length
(2) By flexural bond stress (due to the change
in bar force along its length as bending
moment change along the length)

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• Development length
• Assume that the diameter of one bar of
main reinforcement as Φ
• Maximum tension (T) in the bar= (stress X
Area)
• T=fyd*πΦ2/4
• This force must be transferred from steel to
concrete through bond acting over the
surface of contact over certain length of bar
equal to the development length or
anchorage length (lb )
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• If fbd is the design bond stress acting over the
surface area
Then π Φ lbfbd=fyd πΦ2/4
lb=Φ/4*( fyd/ fbd)
• This is referred in EBCS-2 as the basic
anchorage length (section 7.1.6.1)
• The basic anchorage length is the
embedment length to develop the full design
strength of a straight reinforcing bar.

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 Ribbed Slab
General requirements:
• Because joists are closely spaced, thickness of
slab (topping), t slab ≥ 40 mm
• or 1/10 clear distance between ribs.
• The topping shall be provided with a
reinforcement mesh providing in each direction
a cross sectional area not less than 0.001 of the
section of the slab.
• Unless calculation requires, minimum
reinforcement to be provided for joists include
two bars, where one is bent near the support
and the other straight.
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• Rib width bw ≥ 70 mm, and overall depth Dj ≤
4 bw,joist , excluding tslab
• Rib spacing is generally less than 1 m.
• In case of rib spacing larger than 1 m, the
topping need to be designed as if supported
on ribs (i.e. as one way solid slab between the
ribs).
• If the span of the ribs exceeds 6 m, transverse
ribs may be provided.
• When transverse ribs are provided, the center
to center distance shall not exceed 20 times
the overall depth of the ribbed slab.
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• The transverse ribs shall be designed for at
least half the values of maximum moments
and shear force in the longitudinal ribs.
• The girder supporting the joist may be
rectangular or T-beam, with the flange
thickness equal to the floor thickness.
• Procedure for design of a floor system of
ribbed slab:
• Thickness of topping and ribs assumed based
on minimum requirements.
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• Loads may be computed on the basis of
center line of the spacing of joists.
• The joists are analyzed as continuous T-
beams supported by girders.
• Determine flexural reinforcement and
consider minimum provision in the final
solution.
• Provide the topping or slab with
reinforcement as per temperature and
shrinkage requirement.
• Design the girder as a beam.
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What is the purpose of web flange connection
check for longitudinal shear at the junction of
web and flange has to be conducted?
There can be a possibility of lifting of the thin
topping slab from the set of ribs which has
uniform stiffness placed at a regular interval.
The ribs may act together but the topping slab
being a surface member may act differently
while responding for the load. Hence the
horizontal longitudinal shear at the junction of
web and flange has to be within a limit. Such a
check is termed as web flange connection check
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Solid slabs
One way slab:
Ratio of long span to
short span > 2
Bending in short span
direction only
Two way slab:
Ratio of long span to
short span <= 2
Bending in both the
directions
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Continuous one way slab can be designed
similar to continuous beams, considering
one meter width of the slab element
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• In continuous slabs live load variation in
spans shall be considered while analysis
• For solid slabs the over all thickness of slabs
can be in the range of 100 mm to 170 mm.
• Reinforcement arrangement for one way
slab:
Distributors/secondary reinforcement

Short span

Main Reinforcement

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• Two way slabs design can be done by different
methods like yield line theory, strip method apart
from the coefficient method as given in many of
the RC design codes.
• In the coefficient method, the moments at salient
sections such as field moments and support
moments in two mutually perpendicular
directions are determined as fraction of
(w * l) * l.
• As per EBCS 2 the load transferred to the long
span beam = the shear force per m of short span
direction
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• The support moments when becoming
different in two adjacent spans of slab
panels, they have to be adjusted/averaged
• During such adjustment of support moment,
span moments may get changed
• In two way slabs the short span direction
reinforcement is considered to carry
maximum tension and hence provided outer
while the long span reinforcement provided
inner to the short span reinforcement

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• The entire two way slab panel can be split into
middle strip and edge strips as indicated in EBCS
2 as follows

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