Notation Page 1 of 4

COMPUTERS AND STRUCTURES, INC., BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA AUGUST 2002

CONCRETE FRAME DESIGN BS 8110-97
Technical Note
General and Notation
The BS 8110-97 series of Technical Notes describes in detail the various as-
pects of the concrete design procedure that is used by this program when the
user selects the British limit state design code BS 8110-97 (BSI 1998). The
various notations used in this series are listed herein. When the user selects
the BS 8110-97 code, the program designs concrete frames in accordance
with the 1997 BS 8110 code as amended in Issue 2, September 1998.
The details of the design for BS 8110-97 are described in Technical Notes
Design Load Combinations Concrete Frame Design BS 8110-97, Design
Strength Concrete Frame Design BS 8110-97, Column Design Concrete Frame
Design BS 8110-97, and Beam Design Concrete Frame Design BS 8110-97.
The program uses preferences and overwrites, which are described in Techni-
cal Notes Preferences Concrete Frame Design BS 8110-97 and Overwrites
Concrete Frame Design BS 8110-97.
English as well as SI and MKS metric units can be used for input. The code is
based on Newton-Millimeter-Second units. For simplicity, all equations and
descriptions presented in this series of Technical Notes correspond to New-
ton-Millimeter-Second units unless otherwise noted.
Notation
A
cv
Area of section for shear resistance, mm
2
.
A
s
Area of tension reinforcement, mm
2
.
'
s
A
Area of compression reinforcement, mm
2
.
A
sc
Total area of column longitudinal reinforcement, mm
2
.
A
sv
Total cross-sectional area of links at the neutral axis, mm
2
.
Concrete Frame Design BS 8110-97 General and Notation
Notation Page 2 of 4
C Compression force, N.
E
c
Modulus of elasticity of concrete, MPa.
E
s
Modulus of elasticity of reinforcement, assumed as 200,000 MPa
(BS 2.4.2.3).
K'
Maximum
cu
f bd
M
2
for a singly reinforced concrete section taken as
0.156 by assuming that moment redistribution is limited to 10%.
M Design moment at a section, N-mm.
M
add
Maximum additional moment in a column for a load combination,
N-mm.
M
mag
Magnified moment at a station. Obtained from factored and addi-
tional moment, N-mm.
M
f
Factored moment at a station, N-mm.
M
I
, M
J
Absolute values of end moments at I- and J-ends, respectively,
N-mm.
M
33
, M
22
Applied moments about the major and minor axes of bending of a
column, N-mm.
N Ultimate factored axial load (compression is positive), N.
R
LW
Shear strength reduction factor as specified in the concrete mate-
rial properties. This factor applies to light-weight concrete. It is
equal to 1 for normal weight concrete.
T Tension force, N.
V Factored shear force at ultimate design load, N.
a Depth of compression block, mm.
b Width or effective width of the section in the compression zone,
mm.
Concrete Frame Design BS 8110-97 General and Notation
Notation Page 3 of 4
b' Shorter section dimension, mm.
Shorter effective depth of biaxially bent column, mm.
b
f
Width or effective width of the flange, mm.
b
w
Average web width of a flanged beam, mm.
d Effective depth of tension reinforcement, mm.
d' Depth to center of compression reinforcement, mm.
e
min
Minimum or nominal eccentricity, mm.
f
cu
Characteristic cube strength at 28 days, MPa.
'
s
f
Compressive stress in a beam compression steel, MPa.
f
y
Characteristic strength of reinforcement, MPa.
f
yv
Characteristic strength of link reinforcement, MPa (<460 MPa).
f() A distribution function used to modify the moment at any point of
a column by a certain fraction of maximum additional moment.
h Overall depth of a section in the plane of bending, mm.
h
f
Flange thickness, mm.
k
1
Shear strength enhancement factor.
k
2
Concrete shear strength factor [f
cu
/25]
1/3
.
l
e
Effective height of a column, mm.
l
0
Clear height between end restraints, mm.
s
v
Spacing of links, mm.
v Shear stress, MPa.
v
c
Design ultimate shear stress resistance of a concrete beam, MPa.
'
c
v
Design concrete shear stress corrected for axial forces, MPa.
Concrete Frame Design BS 8110-97 General and Notation
Reference Page 4 of 4
v
2
, v
3
Design ultimate shear stress of a concrete section in major and
minor directions, respectively, MPa.
x Neutral axis depth, mm.
x
bal
Depth of neutral axis in a balanced section, mm.
z Lever arm, mm.
Effective length factor.

b
Moment redistribution factor in a member.

f
Partial safety factor for load.

m
Partial safety factor for material strength.

c
Partial safety factor for concrete. Its value is 1.5.

s
Partial safety factor for reinforcing steel. Its value is 1.05.

c
Concrete strain.

s
Strain in tension steel.
'
s

Strain in compression steel.

Reference
British Standards Institution (BSI). 1998. BS 8110: Part 1: 1997. Structural
Use of Concrete, Part 1: Code of Practice for Design and Construction.
Incorporated Amendment in Issue 2 (September 1998). 389 Chiswick
High Road. London, U.K., W4 4AL.