PRESENTATION OF

ADVANCED DESIGN OF
CONCRETE STRUCTURE
NISARG D. BHAVSAR
FACULTY ADVISOR: Prof. SATYEN RAMANI
DEPARTMENT OF STRUCTURE ENGINEERING
SAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND ENGINEERING RESEARCH
 RESEARCH PAPER I
Optimum Dimension of Post-tension
Concrete Waffle Slabs

Dr. Alaa C. Galeb, Tariq E. Ibrahim

Department of Civil Engineering, University of Basrah, Iraq
ISSN 2319-8753
 INTRODUCTION
 Waffle slab construction consists of rows of concrete joists at
right angles to each other with solid heads at the column
needed for shear requirements Fig (1). Waffle slab construction
allows a considerable reduction in dead load as compared to
conventional flat slab construction since the slab thickness can
be minimized due to the short span between the joists. For
design purpose, waffle slabs are considered as flat slabs with
solid head acting as drop panels.
 Post-tensioning is a technique of pre-loading the concrete in a
manner which eliminates, or reduces the tension stresses that
are induced by the dead and live loads. Where concrete is
relatively expensive, spans are generous, and it is not critical to
select the smallest floor thickness, a post-tensioned waffle slab
construction is likely to be the economical alternative.
WAFFLE SLAB
EQUIVALENT FRAME METHOD
 Dean Peabody, Jr. first proposed the equivalent frame method in 1948.
 The equivalent frame method shares many similarities in analysis with the
direct-design method, but its more general approach allows it to be used to
analyse moments in any practical building frame. Figure shows typical
equivalent frames used in the equivalent frame method.
 The slab of a building is divided into middle strips and column strips for
analysis. The width of a column strip is defined as 0.25l1 or 0.25l2, whichever
is less. The middle strip width is determined by the two column strips that
bound it.
MOMENT DISTRIBUTION & LOAD BALANCING
 The moment distribution method uses relative stiffness (K), carryover factors
(COF), distribution factors (DF), and fixed end moments (FEM), to determine
the distribution of moments in a structure that can be found using the Column
Analogy Method.
 The equivalent column stiffness becomes 1/𝐾𝑒𝑐=1/𝐾𝑡+1/𝐾𝑐.
 T.Y. Lin’s technique of load balancing is the most widely used method for
design of prestressed concrete slabs. The load to be balanced, wb, must be
determined by the designer. It is generally taken as the dead load plus the
sustained part of the live load, but can vary considerably in partially
prestressed slabs. For this paper, the load to be balanced will vary as a
percentage of the slab self-weight.
 To determine the force in the prestressed tendon, the parabolic shape of the
tendon profile provides the following equation of the force due to
equilibrium:
 𝐹 =(𝑤𝑏𝑙²/bd)*𝑙²
 THE DESIGN PROCESS
 In post-tensioning, until calculations are carried out, it is not obvious
whether the serviceability or the ultimate strength state, or both, are
critical. Therefore, the serviceability checks for stresses and deflection are
an essential part of the design.
 At the serviceability state, the stresses in the concrete are required to be
within specified limits in compression and in tension, both at the time of
prestressing with a minimum of load (initial stage) and in the long term under
full applied load (final stage).
 SUMMARY OF STRENGTH
 Span to depth ratio 1/23 to1/25 give an economic slab cost.
 Using minimum slab thickness give you minimum cost and
weight.
 Using 750*750 dome with 150mm rib giving minimum cost and
weight.
 When increase balance load, slab thickness, steel weight and
total weight decrease, tendon weight increase.
 The 95% balance load give minimum cost.
 For span more than 14 m it is repaired to use more than
minimum slab thickness because the maximum dome depth is
500 mm which will increase total weight and cost.
 For span less than 6m, total depth available is more than
required because minimum dome depth is 200mm, which will
increase total weight and cost.
 RESEARCH GAP

 The limitation include that the ribs at least 100mm wide,

spaced not more than 750mm clear, and for a depth not more
than 3.5 times minimum width.
 Also when permanent burned clay or concrete tile fillers of
material having a compressive strength at least equal to fc in
the joists are used, the top slab thickness shall be not less than
one-twelfth the clear distance between ribs, nor less than
40mm.
 The minimum value limits excessive tension and cracking,
while the maximum value limits excessive elastic shortening
and creep.
 RESEARCH PAPER II
Numerical and Experimental Study of a
Real Scale Waffle Slab
P. F. SCHWETZ, F. P. S. L. GASTAL AND L. C. P. SILVA F°
2009 IBRACON
 INTRODUCTION
 The design with the aid of computer programs is almost
essential, mainly because of the rate imposed by structural
design contractors and the request to evaluate the various
possibilities of structural systems, which must bring economic
feasibility, speed and versatility of application.
 In line with this trend, the use of waffle slabs is gradually
becoming an attractive structural solution. This structural
system can be defined as a grid of ribs, distributed in one or
more directions, regularly spaced, connected by a top concrete
slab. The ribbed system is an evolution of solid slabs.
 It results from the elimination of concrete below the neutral
axis, which allows an economic increase on the total thickness
of the slab with the creation of voids in a rhythmic
arrangement. Therefore, there is a reduction on the structure
self-weight and a more efficient use of materials, steel and
concrete.
 METHODOLOGY
(NUMERICAL ANALYSIS)
 The waffle slab under study was designed by a commercial
design company of reinforced concrete structures, in the city of
Porto Alegre, Brazil, that adopted the software CAD / TQS for
Windows for the structural analysis. The modeling of the
structure was made directly in the software´s graphic interface
and the designer was allowed to define his own design criteria.
 In order to determine an adequate position and load intensity
for this localized area, the structure was submitted to several
numerical analysis.
 TQS MAIN DESIGN CRITERIA
 TQS system offers the possibility of adopting some specific
design criteria that allows the determination of efforts and
reinforcement drawing details according to the usual practice
of the structural designer.
 Restraint :The design criteria used for restraint in columns is
called independent elastic restraint.
 Plastification on internal columns of waffle slabs: In
intermediate columns, there are many ways to simulate
plastification and to allow the consideration of torsion in the
grid of the solid region around the columns. Thus, the bars
inside the solid region are separated from the other ones, so
that they could have more torsion and less flexure rigidity.
 Torsion in grillage :The CAD/TQS system allows considering
torsion in grillage ribs, although this is not the default criteria
of the software. In this work, torsion was supported only by the
columns and edge-beams.
 NUMERICAL RESULTS
 Numerical Analysis for the localized area load, including the
structure’s self-weight.
 The deformed configuration of the slab and the distribution of bending
moments for the application of the localized area load, including self-weight.
These results were obtained from a linear analysis of the waffle slab.
 TQS system does not allow performing any analysis without considering the
structure’s self-weight. The experimental tests, however, measured vertical
displacements only for the application of the localized area load, after the
acting of the self weight. To compare such results, it was carried out an
additional numerical analysis, considering only the slab self-weight.
Concerning the effect of the localized area load only, could be obtained by
the difference between both analyses.
 NUMERICAL RESULTS
 Numerical Analysis considering only waffle slab self-weight.
 The deformed configuration of the slab and the distribution of bending
moments considering only the waffle slab self-weight. These results were
obtained from a linear analysis of the slab.
 Interestingly, vertical displacements from the non-linear analysis result
slightly lower then the ones obtained by linear analysis. This odd outcome
resulted from the combination of two factors. The first is that self-weight did
not cause slab cracking and, therefore, no loss of stiffness.
 Experimental Program
 Concrete strain gauges were placed in three cross-section of the
structure
 To measure vertical displacements, the waffle slab was instrumented
with 5 deflection gauges.
 The test was performed 46 days after the structure’s casting and the
load was applied in 4 steps, using cement bags, weighting 50 kg each.
 At the end of each of the four loading and / or unloading steps,
vertical displacements were measured by the deflection gauges, and
specific strains obtained through a data acquisition system.
 SUMMARY OF STRENGTH

 The presented results showed that the waffle slab under study
behaved in a linear like fashion during the loading process,
indicating no overall cracking, but only in some localized areas,
as numerically predicted.
 It was also observed that the measured vertical displacements
and strains were satisfactorily close to the numerically
predicted ones, indicating an adequate response of the
numerical model used in the analysis.
 RESEARCH GAP

 THE “TQS” SOFTWARE WHICH IS USED IN THIS RESEARCH PAPER IS A LOCAL

SOFTWARE AND NOT VERY WELL KNOWN.
 FURTHER STUDIES
 Comparison of manual calculation and site results are required.