Department of Civil & Nat. Res.

Engineering
2nd Pro Structural Design ENCI336

Assignment 1: RC Analysis and Design

th
Circulated: 9 September 2013

Due Date: Monday, 23rd September 2013 (5p.m. second floor drop-in boxes). Late assignments
will not be accepted.

PROBLEM

As part of some refurbishment works in an existing facility, you are required to design a new roof
system for an existing covered walkway. The plan view and typical cross section are provided by the
Architect and shown as an annex of this document.

The new roof system comprises a 150mm thick reinforced concrete slab supported on reinforced
concrete beams spaced at 4m centre-to-centre. Each reinforced concrete beam is 6m long, simply
supported (pinned or dowel connection) on existing 4m high cantilever (fixed at the base) reinforced
concrete columns spaced at 4m centre-to-centre, such that the beam overhangs 1m at each side of the
columns.

The reinforcing steel has a nominal yield strength fy= 300MPa, and the concrete has a compressive
strength f’c= 30MPa.

In addition to the self-weight of the beam, the following loads should be considered for design
purposes:

Table 1. Superimposed floor actions. (Note: MEP is an abbreviation of Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing systems).

Gravity (G): 3.6 kPa (Reinforced concrete slab t= 150mm)

0.6 kPa (MEP, waterproofing)
Total= 4.2 kPa

Live (Q): Total= 2.0 kPa (Roof, non-floor type activities)

PART 1 - RC BEAM DESIGN

a) In order to determine the design bending moments (M*) in the beams at the mid-span AB and at the
supports A and B, analyse the beam using 1.2G+1.5Q load combination. Then, draw the axial

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 force; shear force and bending moment diagrams of the beam (the values for G and Q are shown in
Table 1, in addition to the self-weight of the beam).
Hint: The tributary area for each beam is 4m x 6m, as shown in the annex.
b) Make a quick design of the amount of flexural reinforcement (assuming a singly reinforced beam)
required at:
i) The mid-span AB,
ii) The support A (and B),
iii) Show the resulting reinforcement and its placement along the beam.

c) For each of the previous designs (sections a) i, ii, and iii):

 Check whether the designed reinforcement can be placed on site (e.g. does it fit?) using your
engineering judgement. If placing the reinforcement would be difficult, redesign the beam
reinforcement to solve the problem (hint: change the diameter and/or the steel grade; preferably
you should not change the proposed beam geometry).
 Comment on the expected failure mechanism (e.g., ductile or brittle) by comparing the tensile
A A
reinforcement ratio (  s  s ) to the balanced reinforcement ratio (  b  sb ).
bd bd
 Compare the designed reinforcement values with the minimum and maximum values as per
NZS3101 (given below):
f c'
 min   max  0.75 b
4 fy
 Find MN (Moment capacity at ultimate state) by carrying out section analysis of the designed
section and confirm the following requirement that the moment capacity is bigger than the
design moment:
M *    M N ,   0.85
Note: the following steel reinforcement diameters are available.
D10/HD10: 10mm Diameter (As= 78.5mm2)
D12/HD12: 12mm Diameter (As= 113mm2)
D16/HD16: 16mm Diameter (As= 201mm2)

Figure 1. Proposed beam geometry for the new roof system.

(Note: the amount of longitudinal bars is schematic).

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PART 2 - RC BEAM ANALYSIS

Considering the designed beam section at mid-span AB, calculate the ultimate moment capacity (MU or
MN) of the beam assuming it is a doubly reinforced section with the same amount of bottom (as
computed in the previous part) and top reinforcement added as compression bars (i.e., As=A’s). What is
the maximum live load Q (in kPa) that this beam can resist?

Figure 2. Proposed beam geometry for the new roof system, provided that A s= A’s.

(Note: the amount of longitudinal bars is schematic).

PART 3 – RC COLUMN ANALYSIS

Since the new beams will be supported on existing reinforced concrete columns, you are required to
assess their capacity in order to make sure that they are strong enough to support the new roof system.
Field tests have confirmed that the aforementioned material properties (steel and concrete) can be
assumed for this assessment.

1) Draw full Moment-Axial load, M-N, interaction diagram by calculating:

a) NT (M=0), Pure axial tension

b) NC (M=0), Pure axial compression
c) MN (N=0), Pure flexural bending
d) MB, NB, at the Balanced point
e) Any 5th and 6th points with coordinates [M, N] above and below the balance point.

2) Evaluate whether the column capacity would be sufficient to resist the following load combinations:
i) 1.2G+1.5Q (ULS for gravity load); and
ii) 1.0G+E (ULS for gravity and seismic loads, for non-floor-type roofs).

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Loads:

WG = 68kN
WQ = 24kN
E = 7.9kN

Note: Assume the column is a cantilever with height equal to 4m (e.g., calculate the moment demand at
the base of the column due to E).

Figure 3. Existing reinforced concrete column to be assessed.