Reinforced Concrete II Design for water Supply Engineering 1

Chapter one: EDGE-SUPPORTED TWO-WAY SLABS

1.1 Introduction

In reinforced concrete construction slabs are used to provide flat useful surfaces.
Reinforced concrete slab may be supported by reinforced concrete beams (and is
usually poured monolithically with such beams), by masonry or reinforced concrete walls,
by structural steel members, directly by columns or continuously by the ground.

Slabs may be supported in two opposite sides only, as in Fig.1.1a, in which case the
structural action of the slab is essentially one-way, the loads being carried by the slab
in the direction perpendicular to the supporting beams. There may be beams on all four
sides, as in Fig.1.1b, so that two-way slab action is obtained. If the ratio of length to
width of one slab panel is larger than about 2, most of the load is carried in the shorter
direction to the supporting beams and one-way action is obtained in effect, even though
supports are provided on all sides.

The discussion in this will be about the simplest type of two-way slab action (see Fig
1.1b), where the slab, or slab panel, is supported along its four edges by relatively deep,
stiff, monolithic concrete beams or by walls or steel girders.

(a) One-way slab (b) Two-way slab (c) Two-way slab (3D)

Fig.1.1 Types of structural slabs

1.2 Behavior of Two-Way Edge-Supported Slabs

In many cases, rectangular slabs are of such proportions and are supported in such a way that
tow-way action results. When loaded the slabs bend in a dished surface. This means that at any
point the slab is curved in both principal directions, and since bending moments are proportional
to curvatures, moments also exist in both directions. To resist these moments, the slab must be
reinforced in both directions.

In order to visualize the flexural performance of two-way edge supported slab, consider the
following panel with two sets of parallel strips, in each of the two directions, intersecting each
other. Evidently, part of the load is carried by one set and transmitted to one pair of edge
supports, and the remainder by the other.

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 Reinforced Concrete II Design for water Supply Engineering 2

Fig.1.2 Bending of center strips of two-way on simple edge supports

The above figure shows the two centre strips of a rectangular plate with short span la and long
span lb. if the uniform load w per square meter of slab, each of the two strips acts
approximately like a simple beam uniformly loaded by its share of w. because of these imaginary
strips actually are part of the same monolithic slab, their deflections at the intersection point
must be the same. Equating the centre deflections of the short and long strips gives:
4
5wa la 5wblb4

384 EI 384 EI
Where wa is the share of the load w carried in the short direction and wb is the share if the load
w carried in the long direction. Consequently,
wa l4
 b4
wb la
One sees that the larger share of the load is carried in the short direction, the ratio of the two
portions of the total load being inversely proportional to the fourth power of the ratio of the
spans.

The distribution of short span moment along the centre strip 1-1 (Fig.1.3) shows that the largest
moment in the slab occurs at the mid span. Elsewhere the maximum moment value is less.
Similarly the long span moment diagram in Fig. 1.3b applies only at the longitudinal centre line of
the slab; elsewhere ordinates are reduced according to the variation shown. These variations in
maximum moment across the width and length of a rectangular slab are accounted for in an
approximate way in most practical design methods by designing for a reduced moment in the
outer portion of the slab span in each direction.

Fig.1.3 Moments and moment variations in a uniformly loaded slab

with simple supports on four sides.

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 Reinforced Concrete II Design for water Supply Engineering 3

1.3 Analysis of Edge-Supported Two-Way Slabs by the Coefficient Method

Consider a rectangular plate of sides a and b, simply supported in all edges and
subjected to a uniform load p(x,y) as shown in Fig.7.4. The governing differential
equation for deflections, w(x,y), for thin plate bending analysis is given by:

4w 4w 4w p

2 2 2  4  Eqn (1.1)
x 4 x y y D
Et 3
Where D is the flexural rigidity of the plate, given by D  , t and ν are
12(1   2 )
thickness and poisons ratio of the plate respectively.
a

Fig.1.4 Moments acting on plate element

Once a satisfactory displacement function, w(x,y), is obtained, the stress resultant (e.g.
the moments per unit width of the plate) may be obtained from the second derivatives
of the deflection w(x,y) as follows:
2w 2w
Bending moment along x, M x   D (   )
x 2 y 2
2w 2w
Bending moment along y, M y   D (   ) Eqn (1.2)
y 2 x 2
2w
Twisting moment, M xy   M yx  D (1   )
x y

As exact solution of the governing differential equation is virtually impossible,

approximate methods (e.g. double Fourier series) can be utilized as follows:
 
mx ny
p ( x, y )   pmn sin sin , where the coefficients of the double Fourier
m 1 n 1 a b
mx ny
a b
4
expansion, pmn, are given by pmn   
ab 0 0
p ( x, y ) sin
a
sin
b
dxdy

1   pmn mx ny

w( x, y )   
 D m 1 n 1 (m / a)  (n / b)
4 2
2 2
sin
a
sin
b

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 Reinforced Concrete II Design for water Supply Engineering 4

Accordingly, using eqns 1.2:

1  
(m / a) 2
 v ( n / b) 2 sin mx sin ny
2  mn
Mx 
(m / a) 
p
 m 1 n 1
2
 ( n / b) 2 2 a b

1  
(n / b)  v(m / a) sin mx sin ny
2 2

2  mn
My  Eqn (1.3)
(m / a)  (n / b)  a
p
 m 1 n 1
2 2 2 b

1  
mn mx ny
2  mn
M xy  
 
v p sin sin
 m 1 n 1 ab (m / a )  (n / b)
2 2 2 a b

Referring equation 1.3, the precise determination of moments in two way slabs with
various conditions of continuity at the supported edges is mathematically formidable
and not suited to design practice. For this reason various simplified methods have been
adopted for determining moments, shears, and reactions of such slabs.

According to EBCS 2 2015, edge-supported two-way slabs are to be analyzed and

designed using the coefficient method (see section 1.4).

Reinforcement

Since moments exist in both principal directions of two-way edge-supported slabs, the
main flexural reinforcement is placed in an orthogonal pattern with bars parallel and
perpendicular to the supported edges. As the positive steel is placed in two layers, the
effective depth for upper layer is smaller than that for the lower layer by one bar
diameter. Because the moments in the longer direction are smaller ones, it is economical
to place the steel in that direction on top of the bars in the short direction.

Either straight bars, cutoff where no longer required, or bent bars may be used for
two-way slabs, but economy of bar fabrication and placement will generally favor all
straight bars. As the precise locations of inflection points of two-way edge-supported
slabs are not easily determined, standard cutoff and bend points for beams may be
used.

Twisting moments are usually of consequence only at exterior corners of a two-way slab
system, where they tend to crack the slab at the bottom along the panel diagonal and at
the top perpendicular to the panel diagonal. Therefore; special reinforcement should be
provided at exterior corners in both bottom and top of the slab (see Fig.1.5). The top
reinforcement should be parallel to the diagonal from the corner, while that of the
bottom should be perpendicular to the diagonal. Alternatively, either layer of steel may
be placed in two bands parallel to the sides of the slab.

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 Reinforced Concrete II Design for water Supply Engineering 5

Fig.1.5 Special reinforcement at exterior corners

of edge-supported tow-way slabs

1.4 Analysis and Design of Edge-Supported Two-way Slabs, as per EBCS 2

(1) The type of slab dealt with here is one composed of rectangular panels
supported at all four edges by walls or beams stiff enough to be treated as
unyielding. This may be assumed to be the case if the requirements for the ratio
between the depth of a beam and its span are in accordance with Fig. 1.6.

(2) These methods are intended for slabs with uniformly distributed loads. If a slab
is subjected to concentrate or line loads, in addition to a uniform load, these can
generally be treated by considering them as equivalent uniform loads using
approximate rules, provided that the sum of the non-uniform loads on a panel
does not exceed 20 percent of the total load.

Fig.1.6 Support for two-way slabs

Individual Panel Moments

1) Moments for individual panels with edges either simply supported or fully fixed
are calculated as:
mi   i ( g d  qd ) L2x Eqn (1.4)

Where mi is the design moment per unit width at the point of reference

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 Reinforced Concrete II Design for water Supply Engineering 6

αi is the coefficient given in Table A-l as function of aspect ratio Ly/Lx, and
support conditions
gd is the uniformly distributed design permanent load
qd is the uniformly distributed design live load
Lx is the shorter span of the panel
Ly is the longer span of the panel
Subscripts for moments and moment coefficients (αi ) have the following meanings:
s support
f field (span)
x direction of shorter span
y direction of longer span
M xf   xf Pd L x 2 M xs   xs Pd L x 2
M yf   yf Pd L x 2 M ys   ys Pd L x 2
2) Notations for different critical moments and edge numbers are shown in Fig. 1.7.

Fig.1.7 Notations for Critical Moments

3) Division of slabs into middle and edge strips is illustrated in Fig. 1.8. The middle
strip being three quarters of the width and each edge strip one eighth of the
width.

Fig.1.8 Division of slab in to middle and edge strips

4) The maximum design moments calculated as above apply only to the middle strips
and no redistribution shall be made.

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 Reinforced Concrete II Design for water Supply Engineering 7

5) Reinforcement in an edge strip, parallel to the edge, need not be less than
minimum areas of tension reinforcement.

Moments in Continuous Slabs

1) The first stage of design is to determine support and span moments for all
panels individually by treating their edges as either simply supported or fully
fixed. External edges are generally considered as simply supported and
continuous edges are considered as fully fixed in this.
2) If the slab is connected with an external wall or if any of its edges is partly
fixed and partly simply supported, the following procedure may be adopted:
(a) The ratio of the actual support moment to the bending moment of fully
fixed slab, or the ratio of the width of fixed part to the width of the
simply supported part of the edge is evaluated.
(b) The bending moments of the slab are then computed by interpolating
between different support conditions.
3) For each support over which the slab is continuous there will thus generally be
two different support moments. The difference may be distributed between the
panels on either side of the support to equalize their moments, as in the moment
distribution method for frames.
4) Two methods of differing accuracy are given here for treating the effects of
this redistribution on moments away from the support.

Method I

1) Method I may be used;

(a) When differences between initial support moments are less than 20 percent
of the larger moment, and
(b) only for internal structures where the live load does not exceed 2.5 times
the permanent load (qk ≤ 2.5gk) or 0.8 times the dead load for external
structures (qk ≤ 0.8gk).
2) When Method I is used, dimensioning is normally carried out either using:
(a) Initial moments directly, or
(b) based on the average initial moment at the support.

Method II

1) In this method consideration of the effects of changes of support moments is

limited to the adjacent spans. Since no effects on neighboring support sections
need be considered, only a simple balancing operation is required at each edge
and no iterative process is involved.
2) The procedure for applying this method is as follows:

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 Reinforced Concrete II Design for water Supply Engineering 8

(a) Support and span moments are first calculated for individual panels by
assuming each panel to be fully loaded. This is done by using the
coefficients given in Table 1.1
(b) The unbalanced moment is distributed using the moment distribution
method. The relative stiffness of each panel shall be taken proportional
to its gross moment of inertia divided by the smaller span.
(c) If the support moment is decreased, the span moments mxf and myf are
then increased to allow for the changes of support moments. This
increase is calculated as being equal to the change of the support
moment multiplied by the factors given in Table 1.2.

Elastic Values of Support Moments

1) The above methods give average values of support moments. In cases where
maximum elastic moments should be considered (e.g. in watertight structures),
elastic theory must be used.

Loads on Supporting Beams

1) The design loads on beams supporting solid slabs spanning in two directions at
right angles support: uniformly distributed loads may be assessed from the
following equations:

Vx   vx g d  q d L x
Vy   vy g d  q d L x

2) Table 1.3 gives values of load transfer coefficients. The assumed distribution of
the load on a supporting beam is as shown below.

3) The loads on beams supporting solid slabs spanning in two directions at right
angles and supporting uniformly distributed loads may be assumed to be in
accordance with the following figure.

4) The design load on a beam determined in accordance with the above equations
may be taken as the maximum shear in the slab at the center of support.

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 Reinforced Concrete II Design for water Supply Engineering 9

Table 1.1 Bending moment coefficients for rectangular panels supported on four sides
with provision for torsion at corners.

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 Reinforced Concrete II Design for water Supply Engineering 10

Table 1.2 Factors for adjusting span moments mxf and myf

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 Reinforced Concrete II Design for water Supply Engineering 11

Table 1.3 Shear force coefficients for uniformly loaded rectangular panels supported
on four sides with provision for torsion at corners.

Compiled By: Abinet Alemseged & Haymanot G/Silassie Lecture Note