DESIGN OF BEAM BEARING PLATES

Beams are supported by some type of

foundation. The load transferred
from the beam to the foundation must
be distributed over a large enough
area so that the foundation does not
become overstressed. Furthermore,
the beam must be able to transfer
the load to the foundation without
becoming overstressed. Normally a
bearing plate is used to distribute
the beam reaction load.
The design of beam bearing plates is
discussed in Section J9 of Part 6
and in Part 11 of the AISC LRFD
Manual. The primary factors in the
design of a base plate are:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Size of the bearing plate,

Size of the foundation,
Factored design load, and
Strength of the foundation.

Three resistance factors are

specified in the Manual: 1.0 for
local web yielding, 0.75 for web
crippling, and 0.6 for the concrete.
As stated in the commentary for
Section J9, the AISC uses a smaller
resistance factor for the concrete
than does the ACI because the AISC
also uses smaller load factors.
Definition of Terms
------------------Design Load -- the factored design
load that will be acting on
the bearing plate.
B -- width of the bearing plate.
The bearing plate must be at
least as wide as the beam
flange.
N -- length of the bearing plate.
t -- thickness of the bearing
plate.
fc' -- strength of the concrete
foundation. It is the
bearing strength if the
foundation is made of
something besides concrete.
b1 -- distance from the edge of the
bearing plate to the edge of

the support. The direction in

which this distance is
measured is perpendicular to
the web of the beam.
Location -- the bearing plates are
specified to be either at the
end of the beam or somewhere
along the length of the beam.
Design Considerations
--------------------In INSTEP, the bearing plate is
assumed to be resting on concrete.
The strength of the concrete
considered is 0.85 times the
specified fc'. If the plate rests
on a material other than concrete,
the value of fc' should be specified
as the allowable bearing of the
material divided by 0.85. Further
modification will be necessary if
the resistance factor for the
material cannot be taken to be 0.6.
If the parameters B and N are both
equal to zero, INSTEP will compute
the required bearing area from which
the designer can determine
appropriate dimensions for the
bearing plate. If either B or N are
equal to zero (the other parameter
is nonzero) a trial value for the
unspecified (zero) parameter will be
calculated. These calculations do
not take into consideration the size
of the bearing area which can
decrease the required plate size.