Design of Flat Slab

By. N. S. Mehta

Thursday, October 21, 2021 By. N. S. Mehta 1

Content
• Introduction
• Indian Code Recommendations (IS: 456 – 2000)
• Proportioning of flat slab elements
• Design methods for flat slab

Thursday, October 21, 2021 By. N. S. Mehta 2

Introduction
• For Covering large area, three methods are usually adopted
1. Conventional tee-beam slab
2. Flat slab: beams are omitted except the edge beam
3. Grid slab: deeper beams are used with closer spacing and columns are
omitted

Thursday, October 21, 2021 By. N. S. Mehta 3

Advantages of flat slab
1. It gives less storey height for a given clear height of the floor, thus increasing the
number of floor.
2. Formwork for the flat slab is simpler than normal tee-beam slab construction.
3. More uniform access to daylight and easier accommodation of the various ducts in
the building.
4. Saving in materials of construction as illustrated in table.
5. Construction of flat slab is simple and speedy.

● The main disadvantage of flat slab and flat plates in their lack of
resistance to lateral loads, such as those due to high wind and
earthquakes. Hence, special features like shear wall must be always
provided if they are to be used in high-rise constructions or in earthquake
regions.

Thursday, October 21, 2021 By. N. S. Mehta 4

Thursday, October 21, 2021 By. N. S. Mehta 5
 Components of flat slab
1. Drop: Drop is that part of the slab around the column. Which is of greater
thickness than the rest of the slab. The drop may have 25% to 50% more
thickness, than the rest of the slab.
2. Column head: Some times, the diameter of the supporting column is increased
below the slab. This part of the column with increased diameter is called column
head.
3. Panel: A panel of a flat slab construction is the area enclosed between the centre to
centre lines connecting adjacent columns in two directions and the outline of the
column heads.
Thursday, October 21, 2021 By. N. S. Mehta 6
 Flat Slab

Drop

Column Head

Thursday, October 21, 2021 By. N. S. Mehta 7

Flat slab are constructed by following three ways:
1. The slab is supported on column
2. The slab is strengthened by providing flared column head also
known as capital
3. The slab is additionally strengthen by thickening its around the
column known as drop

Thursday, October 21, 2021 By. N. S. Mehta 8

1. No drop and no column head: When slab
span is comparatively less and carrying
lighter load.

2. Without drop and column with column head:

When large bending moment around the
column, Column is strengthened by enlarging
area.

3. With drop and with column head: When large

shear force develop in the slab. Slab is
strengthened by thickening it around the
column.

Thursday, October 21, 2021 By. N. S. Mehta 9

Indian Code Recommendations (IS: 456 – 2000)

Reference:
Cl. No. 31.1.1
Page No. 53
IS 456 : 2000

Thursday, October 21, 2021 By. N. S. Mehta 10

Thursday, October 21, 2021 By. N. S. Mehta 11
Thursday, October 21, 2021 By. N. S. Mehta 12
Thursday, October 21, 2021 By. N. S. Mehta 13
Proportioning of flat slab elements
1. Thickness of Flat slab:
• The thickness of flat slab shall satisfy the design requirement with a
minimum value of 125 mm.
• If the flat slab containing drops having width of drop at least equal to one
third of respective span, the deflection rules as applied two solid slab are
directly applied. Otherwise, the permissible span to effective depth ratio Shall
be multiplied by 0.9.
Cl. No. 31.2.1 Page No. 53, IS 456: 2000

Thursday, October 21, 2021 By. N. S. Mehta 14

2. Drop (Cl. No. 31.2.2 Page No. 53, IS 456: 2000)
• Rectangular drops are provided to reduce the shear stresses around the
column supports and also to reduce the negative moment reinforcement.
• Length of drop in which direction shall not be less than one third of the panel
length in that direction.
• Projection of the drop below the slab shall not be less than one fourth the
thickness of slab.
• For exterior panels, the width of drops measured from the central line of
columns shall be equal to one-half the width of drop for interior panels.
𝐷𝑟𝑜𝑝 𝑒𝑥𝑡 = 0.5 × 𝐷𝑟𝑜𝑝 (𝑖𝑛𝑡)

Thursday, October 21, 2021 By. N. S. Mehta 15

3. Column head: (Cl. No. 31.2.3 Page No. 53, IS 456: 2000 )
• The portion of a column head which lies within the largest right circular
cone or pyramid that has a vertex angle of 90 degree and can be included
entirely within the outline of the column and the column here shall be
considered for the design. The additional concrete outside this pyramid Shall
be neglected in design.

Thursday, October 21, 2021 By. N. S. Mehta 16

Design methods for flat slab
• The flat slab is a two way slab bending in both the directions and hence the
reinforcement in both the directions are necessary. Exact theoretical analysis is
quite complex and can be made by numerical techniques like FEM and FDM
• IS: 456 gives two methods for designing flat slab.
1. Direct design method (D.D.M.): In this method, empirical coefficients are
used to find out the design moments at various locations.
2. Equivalent frame method (E.F.M.)

Thursday, October 21, 2021 By. N. S. Mehta 17

Direct Design Method (D.D.M.)
This empirical method may be employed for designing the flat slab fulfilling the
following conditions:
1. The slab has minimum of three continuous spans in each direction.
2. The panels are rectangular with l/b ≯ 2 where l and b are longer and
shorter span respectively.
3. Successive span in each direction do not differ by 1ൗ3𝑟𝑑 of the longer span.
3
4. 𝐿𝐿 ≯ 4
𝐷𝐿

Thursday, October 21, 2021 By. N. S. Mehta 18

 Total Design moment for a Span
𝑤𝑢 𝑙2 𝑙𝑛2
𝑀0 =
8
Where: 𝑀0 = total moment
𝑤𝑢 = Factored design load
𝑙2 = length of span transverse to 𝑙1
𝑙𝑛 = clear span extending from face of
column, capitals, bracket or walls, but
not less than 0.65 𝑙1
𝑙1 = length of span in the direction of
𝑀0

Reference:
(Cl. No. 31.2.3 Page No. 53, IS 456: 2000 )

Thursday, October 21, 2021 By. N. S. Mehta 19

 Distribution of moments in slabs:
σ 𝑲𝒄
α𝒄 =
𝑲𝒔

Where: α𝑐 = The ratio of flexural stiffness of the

exterior columns to the flexural stiffness
of the slab at a joint taken in the direction
moments are being determined.
σ 𝐾𝑐 = sum of the flexural stiffness of the
columns meeting at the joints
σ 𝐾𝑠 = flexural stiffness of the slab
expressed as moment per unit rotation

Reference:
(Cl. No. 31.4.3.3 Page No. 55, IS 456: 2000 )

Thursday, October 21, 2021 By. N. S. Mehta 20

 Transverse distribution of moments in slabs:

1. Moment in column strip: the column strip moments shall be as follow.

i. Negative moment at interior support

=75% of the total negative moment in the panel at the support
ii. Negative moment at exterior support
=100% of the negative moment in the panel at the support
iii. Positive moment for each span
Reference:
=60% of the total positive moment in the panel (Cl. No. 31.5.5.1 Page No. 57,
IS 456: 2000 )

Thursday, October 21, 2021 By. N. S. Mehta 21

Thursday, October 21, 2021 By. N. S. Mehta 22
2. Moment in middle strip:

The moment to be resisted by middle strip is equal to the moment that is

not resisted by column strip. In case where adjacent spans of the slab are different ,
each half of the middle strip receive the moment from its adjacent column strip.
The sum of these moments shall be resisted by total width of the middle strip.

Reference:
(Cl. No. 31.5.5.4 Page No. 57,
IS 456: 2000 )

Thursday, October 21, 2021 By. N. S. Mehta 23

 Effect of pattern loading

Reference:
(Cl. No. 31.5.5.4 Page No. 57, IS 456: 2000 )
Thursday, October 21, 2021 By. N. S. Mehta 24
 Transfer of floor loads into column
Two kinds of loads are arising at the joint for columns and slab
which must be safely transmitted to the column. These are
1. Vertical load acting at the centerline of the column
2. The unbalanced moments
This unbalanced moment may be due to pattern loading, wind
and earthquake loading or may other eccentric loading. For exterior
columns, the unbalanced moment may have substantial values

Thursday, October 21, 2021 By. N. S. Mehta 25

Thursday, October 21, 2021 By. N. S. Mehta 26
 Reference:
(Cl. No. 31.4.5.2 Page No. 55, IS 456: 2000 )
Thursday, October 21, 2021 By. N. S. Mehta 27
 Design for shear

1. Calculation of shear stress

According to Cl. No. 31.6.2 Page no. 57
Interior Column
𝑑𝑎13 𝑎1 2 𝑎1 𝑑3
𝐽𝑐 = 2 + 𝑎2 𝑑 +2
12 2 12
Exterior Column
2𝑎13 2 𝑎1 𝑑 3
𝐽𝑐 = 𝑑 − 2𝑎1 + 𝑎2 𝑥ҧ +2
3 12
2. Permissible shear stress
According to Cl. No. 31.6.3 Page no. 58

Thursday, October 21, 2021 By. N. S. Mehta 28

Thursday, October 21, 2021 By. N. S. Mehta 29
Thursday, October 21, 2021 By. N. S. Mehta 30
Thursday, October 21, 2021 By. N. S. Mehta 31
Design steps
Step-1: Load calculation and depth of slab
Step-2: Calculation of stiffness and α𝑐
Step-3: Check for correction due to pattern loading
Step-4: Calculation of design moments
Step-5: Design for flexure
Step-6: Transfer of moment in column
Step-7: Check for shear
Step-8: Design for shear
Step-9: Final drawing
Thursday, October 21, 2021 By. N. S. Mehta 32