R. Prabhakara, K. U. Muthu, and R.

Meenakshi

ALLOWABLE SPAN/DEPTH RATIO FOR HIGH STRENGTH

CONCRETE BEAMS
R. Prabhakara, K. U. Muthu*, and R. Meenakshi
Department of Civil Engineering,
M S Ramaiah Institute of Technology, Bangalore, India

1. INTRODUCTION
Deflection is an important serviceability limit state to be satisfied in the design of concrete structures. In recent
times, high strength concrete and steel have been used widely in construction. This has resulted in the design of beams
of smaller depths, which may undergo greater deflections. This has been investigated in references [112].
Basically, there are two approaches used in the design offices: viz. (1) control of deflection approach; and (2)
computation of deflections approach. In the first approach, span to effective depth ratios are specified in the codes of
practices to control the deflections. Control is obtained by providing a suitable effective depth of the beam which is
obtained based on support conditions, span, area and type of tension reinforcement, area of compression reinforcement,
and flanges for flanged beams. An important parameter, i.e. ratio of sustained load to total load (ws/w) on the beam
which influences the creep deflections does not find a place in several cases. A few researchers have incorporated this
effect [13, 14]. The control approach is preferred by many due to its simplicity. However, several investigators [10, 13,
1518] pointed out the discrepancies and disparities. Recently Scanlon and Lee [19] proposed a unified span to depth
ratio equation for control of deflections in one and two way concrete construction. The above method requires further
examination with respect to the high strength concrete beams and slabs.
An attempt has been made in the present study to obtain the spanto effectivedepth ratio for singlyreinforced and
doublyreinforced highstrength concrete beams. The method is based on ACI 318-05 and the effect of the ratio of the
sustained load to total load and the breadth of the beam has been included in the analysis. A total of 747 singly
reinforced beams and 263 doublyreinforced beams were used in developing the proposed equation. Design charts are
presented for ready use.

* Address for correspondence

Professor and Head, Dept. of Civil Engg, MSRIT, Bangalore 560054, India
Tel: +91-080-23600822
Fax: +91-080-23603124
Email: kumuthu@rediffmail.com

Key words: beams, cracked inertia, deflection, high strength concrete, serviceability, ultimate strength
Paper Received 12 August 2005; Revised 3 October 2006; Accepted 18 March 2007

October 2007

The Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering, Volume 32, Number 2B

349