DEFLECTION OF BEAMS

Importance of Deflections

Excessive deflections of beams and slabs may cause

• sagging floors
• ponding on flat roofs
• excessive vibrations

Deflections may damage partitions and cause poor fitting of doors and windows.

They may damage a structure’s appearance or frighten the occupants of the building, even though the
building may be perfectly safe

Control of Deflections

• One of the best ways to reduce deflections is by increasing member depths—but designers are
always under pressure to keep members as shallow as possibl

 shallower members mean thinner floors, and thinner floors mean buildings with less height,
with consequent reductions in many costs, such as plumbing, wiring, elevators, outside
materials on buildings, and so on

• Reinforced concrete specifications usually limit deflections by specifying certain minimum depths or
maximum permissible computed deflections

Minimum Thicknesses

ACI Code provides a set of minimum thicknesses for beams and one-way slabs to be used, unless actual
deflection calculations indicate that lesser thicknesses are permissible.

Maximum Deflections

 If the designer chooses not to meet the minimum thicknesses given in previous Table, he or she
must compute deflections. If this is done, the values determined may not exceed the values specified

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Camber

• members are constructed of such a shape that they will assume their theoretical shape under some
service loading
• A simple beam would be constructed with a slight convex bend, so that under certain gravity loads,
it would become straight, as assumed in the calculations.
• Some designers consider both dead and full live loads in figuring the amount of camber. Camber is
generally used only for longer-span members.

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Calculation of Deflections
 Deflections for reinforced concrete members can be calculated with the usual deflection expressions

Effective Moments of Inertia

• Regardless of the method used for calculating deflections, there is a problem in determining the
moment of inertia to be used. The trouble lies in the amount of cracking that has occurred.
• If the bending moment is less than the cracking the full uncracked section provides rigidity, and the
moment of inertia for the gross section Ig is available.

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 • When larger moments are present, different-size tension cracks occur and the position of the neutral
axis varies.

Effects of cracks on deflections

• Although a reinforced concrete beam may be of constant size (or prismatic) throughout its length, for
deflection calculations, it will behave as though it were composed of segments of different-size
beams.
• For the portion of a beam where the moment is less than the cracking moment, Mcr, the beam can
be assumed to be uncracked, and the moment of inertia can be assumed to equal Ig.
• When the moment is greater than Mcr, the tensile cracks that develop in the beam will, in effect,
cause the beam cross section to be reduced, and the moment of inertia may be assumed to equal
the transformed value, Icr
• If it is desired to obtain the immediate deflection of an uncracked prismatic member, the
moment of inertia may be assumed to equal Ig along the length of the member.
• Should the member be cracked at one or more sections along its length, or if its depth varies along
the span, a more exact value of I needs to be used.
• Ie, the effective moment of inertia, is based on an estimation of the probable amount of cracking
caused by the varying moment throughout the span:

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Beam Deflections

Unless stiffness values are obtained by a more comprehensive analysis, immediate deflection shall be
computed with the modulus of elasticity of concrete and with an effective moment of inertia as follows, but
not greater than Ig.

 M cr   M  3 3

I e =   I g + 1 −  
 cr
 I cr
 Ma    M a  
Ma = maximum moment in member at stage deflection is computed
Ig = moment of inertia of gross concrete section about centroidal axis, neglecting reinforcement.
Icr = moment of inertia of cracked section transformed to concrete

fr I g
M cr =
yt
fr = modulus of rupture of concrete
yt = distance from centroidal axis of gross cross section, neglecting reinforcement, to extreme fiber in tension

f r =  0.62 fc'
l = 0.85 for sand lightweight concrete
l = 0.75 for all lightweight concrete
l = 1.00 for normal concrete

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TRANSFORMED SECTION

To Locate neutral axis: Moment of area of concrete about NA = steel about NA

𝑥2
𝑏 = 𝑛𝐴𝑠 (𝑑 − 𝑥)
2

 The basic concept of a transformed area is that the section of steel and concrete is transformed
into a homogeneous section of concrete by replacing the actual steel area with an equivalent
area of concrete.

𝑬𝒒𝒖𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒃𝒓𝒊𝒖𝒎
𝑃𝑠 = 𝑃𝑐
𝐴𝑠𝑓𝑠 = 𝐴𝑐𝑓𝑐
Strain Compatibility

𝑓𝑠 𝑓𝑐
=
𝐸𝑠 𝐸𝑐

𝑓𝑠𝐸𝑐
𝑓𝑐 =
𝐸𝑠
𝐸𝑠
𝑛=
𝐸𝑐

𝑓𝑠
𝑓𝑐 =
𝑛

𝐴𝑠𝑓𝑠 = 𝐴𝑐𝑓𝑐

𝑓𝑠
𝐴𝑐 = 𝐴𝑠
𝑓𝑐

𝐴𝑐 = 𝑛𝐴𝑠

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To determine Icr

bx 3
Icr = + nAs (d − x)2
3

Unless stiffness values are obtained by a more comprehensive analysis, additional long-term deflection
resulting from creep and shrinkage of flexural members shall be determined by multiplying the immediate
deflection caused by the sustained load considered, by the factor

ξ
λ=
1 + 50p′

where p’ shall be the value of reinforcement ratio for non-pre-stress compression reinforcement at mid-span
for simple and continuous spans, and at support for cantilever. It is permitted to assume the time-dependent
factor ξ for sustained load to be equal to

5 years or more 2.0

12 months 1.4
6 months 1.2
3 months 1.0

SAMPLE PROBLEM

A reinforced concrete beam is 350mm wide and 600mm deep. The beam is simply supported over a span of
8m and carries a uniform dead load of 11KN/m including its own weight and a uniform live load of 15kN/m.
The beam is reinforced for tension only with 6-25mm diameter bars with an effective depth to tension bars of
530mm. fc = 20.7MPa, fy = 344. 8MPa, f, = 2.832MPa. Modulus of elasticity of concrete Ec = 21, 650MPa
and Eg = 200GPa.

a. Calculate the maximum instantaneous deflection due to service live loads.

b. Calculate the deflection for the same loads after five years assuming that 40% of the live load is
sustained.

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