Minimum Thickness of Flat Plate Addressing Construction Load and Scheme

Abstract

During construction of building structures, construction load significantly greater than the self-weight of a slab, is imposed on the early-age concrete slabs. As a result, according to the construction scheme, the construction load may causes excessive long term deflection and flexural cracking in a flat plate. However, the requirement of minimum thickness of the flat plate provided by the current design codes does not address such effect of the construction load on the slab. In the present study, a simplified design method was developed to calculate the deflection of a flat plate affected by the construction load and scheme. In the proposed method, a variety of design parameters affecting the long-term deflection of the plate was considered. Based on the proposed method, a design equation for estimating the minimum thickness of the flat plate was developed to be conveniently used in design work.