DESIGN OF SLABS

By:
Ir. Mohamad Salleh Yassin
Faculty of Civil Engineering
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
Design Procedure
Step Task Standard
1 Determine design life, Exposure class & Fire resistance
EN 1990 Table 2.1
EN 1992-1-1: Table 4.1
EN 1992-1-2: Sec. 5.6
2 Determine material strength
BS 8500-1: Table A.3
EN 206-1: Table F1
3 Determine thickness of slab
EN 1992-1-1: Table 7.4N
EN 1992-1-2: Table 5.8
4 Calculate min. cover for durability , fire and bond requirements EN 1992-1-1: Sec. 4.4.1
5 Estimate actions on slabs EN 1991-1-1
6
Analyze structure to obtain critical moments and
shear forces
EN 1992-1-1: Sec. 5
7 Design flexural reinforcement EN 1992-1-1: Sec. 6.1
8 Check shear EN 1992-1-1: Sec. 6.2
9 Check deflection EN 1992-1-1: Sec. 7.4
10 Check cracking EN 1992-1-1: Sec. 9.3
11 Detailing EN 1992-1-1: Sec.8 & 9.3
Slab thickness
The selection of slab thickness from structural
viewpoint is often dictated by deflection control
criteria. In practice, the overall depths of slabs are
often fixed in relation to their spans.
Span to overall depth ratios of 20 to 30 are generally
found to be economical in the case of simply
supported and continuous beams.


EN 1992-1-2: Table 5.8
Concrete Cover
The nominal cover can be assessed as follows:
C
nom
= C
min
+ AC
dev
Where C
min
shall be provided in order to ensure:
The safe transmission of bond forces
The protection of steel against corrosion (Durability)
An adequate fire resistance
And AC
dev
is and allowance which should be made in the design
for deviation from the minimum cover. It should be taken as 10
mm. It is permitted to reduce to 5 mm if the fabrication subjected to
a quality assurance system.

Minimum cover for bond
EN 1992-1-1
Arrangement of
bars
Minimum cover c
min,b
*
Separated Diameter of bar
Bundle Equivalent diameter
|
n =
| \n
b
55 mm
Where n
b
is the number of bars in the bundle, which is
limited to
n
b
4 for vertical bars in compression
n
b
3 for all other cases
* If the nominal maximum aggregate size is > 32 mm, c
min,b
should be
increased by 5 mm
Minimum cover for durability
EN 1992-1-1
Structural
Class
Exposure Class according to Table 4.1 EC 2
X0 XC1 XC2/XC3 XC4 XD1/XS1 XD2/XS2 XD3/XS3
S1 10 10 10 15 20 25 30
S2 10 10 15 20 25 30 35
S3 10 10 20 25 30 35 40
S4 10 15 25 30 35 40 45
S5 15 20 30 35 40 45 50
S6 20 25 35 40 45 50 55
d f
V
yk
Ed
513 . 0
=




Minimum cover for fire resistance
Rather than giving a minimum cover, the tubular method based on
nominal axis distance is used. This is the distance from the centre
of the main reinforcement bar to the top or bottom surface of the
member.
a > C
nom
+ |
ink
+ |
bar
/2




Analysis
The analysis of reinforced concrete slab to determine
bending moment and shear force may be done either
by using elastic analysis or by considering plastic
collapse methods. Hence one of the following methods
can be use.

Elastic analysis
Yield line method
Hillerborg strip method
Moment and shear coefficient from Code of practice
or handbook


DESIGN OF FLEXURAL REINFORCMENT
The design procedure for flexural design in
Figure 2. The derived formula is based on the
following simplified stress block.
EN 1992-1-1:
Sec. 6.1
The calculations for flexural reinforcement follow a similar procedure to that use
in beam design.
1. Calculate K =
ck
2
f bd
M

2. If K K
bal
(= 0.167), compression reinforcement is not required, and

i. ( ) | | 134 . 1 25 . 0 5 . 0 K d z + =
ii.
z f
M
A
yk
s
87 . 0
=
EN 1992-1-1: Sec. 9.3
SHEAR
EN 1992-1-1: Sec. 6.2.2
DEFLECTION
EC 2 has two alternative
methods for checking
deflection, either a limiting
span-to-depth ratio or the
theoretical deflection
calculation. The span-to-
depth ratio should ensure
that deflection is limited to
span/250.
EN 1992-1-1:
Sec. 7.4
CRACKING
EN 1992-1-1: Sec. 9.3
To resist cracking of the concrete slabs, EC2 specify
details such as minimum area of reinforcement required
in a section and limits to the maximum and minimum
spacing of bar.

The minimum area of principal reinforcement is A
s,min
=
0.26f
ctm
b
t
d/f
yk
but not less than 0.0013b
t
d, where b
t
is the
mean width of the tension zone.


CRACKING
EN 1992-1-1: Sec. 7.3
The minimum area of secondary reinforcement is 20%
A
s,min
. In areas near support, transverse reinforcement is
not necessary where there is no transverse bending
moment.

The spacing of principal reinforcement bars should not
exceed three times the overall depth of slab (3h) or 400
mm whichever is the lesser. For secondary reinforcement
the spacing should not exceed 3.5h or 450 mm whichever
the lesser. These rules apply for slabs not exceeding 200
mm thick.
DESIGN EXAMPLE
See:
Example 7.4
Tutorial 6
End of Lecture 6