STEEL AND TIMBER

STRUCTURES

CHAPTER 7 –Base Plate

 Introduction
Support plates are employed to effectively and
uniformly transmit loads from support structures
usually in the form of reactions-to the underlying
support media. Common occurrences of such
plates are:
 base plates at column supports as shown in Fig. 8.1a
 bearing plates for supported beams-usually at ends,
bearing walls, columns or other beams as in Fig. 8.1b
 bearing plates at truss supports as shown in Fig.8.1c.
Fig. 7.1 Major types of support plates
 Column Base Plates

 Column base plates, Fig.8.1a, are steel plates, placed

at the bottom ends of columns lying right above the
foundation system in order to effectively transmit the
column loads to the underlying pedestal that is usually
made from concrete.
 The design of a column base plate involves two major
parts:
 determining the size B1 x B2 of the plate, and
 determining the thickness tp of the plate.
 Conti…

 Generally, the size of the plate is determined based

on the limit state capacity of concrete in bearing,
and the thickness of the plate is determined based
on the limit state of plastic bending of critical
sections in the plate.
 Base Plates Subjected to Axial Loads

 Base plates that support concentrically loaded

columns in frames in which the column bases are
assumed pinned are designed with the assumption that
the column factored load Pu is distributed uniformly to
the area of the concrete under the base plate. As it
was mentioned earlier, the determination of both plate
thickness and its plan geometry will constitute the design
of the base plate.
 Size of plate

 The size of the base plate is determined from the

limit state of bearing of concrete. The design
bearing strength of concrete is given by:
 Define the grade of concrete and bearing strength
of concrete.
 Compute the area of slab base
N/A
 Where N is factored load
A is required area of base plate
 Conti…
 Take 1 meter strip of slab projection in xx :
Mxx max =w*1*ar*ar/2=war2/2
Myy max =w*1*ar*br/2=wbr2/2
Where
W intensity of bearing pressure from concrete below the
base plate
Net moment
Mx net=war2/2-µwbr2/2
µ is Poisson's ratio=0.3
 Conti…
Designer feel that the projection of the base plate beyond
column edge a,b as shown in the fig may be kept equal and
the sides can be worked out by ;
A=(h+2b)*(bf+2a)
Where
A is required area of the base plate
h is depth of the column section in mm
b is smaller projection of the base plate in mm
a is bigger projection of the base plate in mm
bf is width of the flange of the column in mm
Base plates
 The resistant moment mrd per unite length of a yield
line in the base plate is

 The pressure in the resulting bearing area should

not exceed the bearing strength fj of the joint and
the additional bearing length c
Conti…
 The bearing strength of the joint fj

 Bj= coefficient=2/3

a1 and b1 are dimensions of effective area

a and b are dimensions of base plate
a1 and b1 are least of
Conti..
 Thickness of the plate can be calculated as:
t2fy/6mo
Mx net=war2/2-µwbr2/2=t2fy/6rmo
t2=6rmo(war2/2-µwbr2/2)/fy
 ANCHOR BOLTS

Anchor bolts are provided for two main purposes

 to stabilize the column during erection

 to prevent uplift for cases involving large moments.

Anchor bolts can be cast-in-place bolts or drilled in bolts.

The latter are placed after the concrete is set and are
not often used; their design is governed by the
manufacturer’s specifications. Cast-in-place bolts are
hooked bars, bolts, or threaded rods with nuts (Fig.8.7)
placed before the concrete is set.
Conti…
 Conti…
 Of the three types of caste-in-place anchors shown in
the figure, the hooked bars are recommended for use
only in axially loaded base plates. They are not
normally relied on to carry significant tensile force.
Bolts and threaded rods with nuts can be used for
both axially loaded base plates and base plates with
moments
Conti…
 Threaded rods with nuts are used when the length
and size required for the specific design exceed
those of standard-size bolts. Failure of bolts or
threaded rods with nuts occurs when their tensile
capacities are reached.
BEAM BEARING PLATES

 Beam bearing plates are provided between the

beam and the supporting media that can have
concrete pedestals, to distribute the reaction to the
support. Accordingly, they are provided between
main girders and concrete pedestals to distribute
the girder reactions to the concrete supports (Fig.
7.9a) or between cross beams and girders if the
cross beams are designed to sit on the girders as
shown in Fig. 7.9b
 Conti…

Fig. 7.9 Beam bearing plate.

 Conti…
The design of bearing plates involves consideration of four
major components. They are designed based on the limit
states of web yielding, web crippling, bearing of the plate.
The dimension of the plate along the beam axis, i.e, B2 is
determined from the web yielding or web crippling
criterion, whichever is more critical, as presented in
Chapter Four under Concentrated Load Criteria. The
dimension B1 of the plate is determined from
B1= Ap/B2
Where Ap plate area and B1 and B2 are dimension of the
plate