University of Zambia

Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

3. Design of Reinforced Concrete

Structures to BS 8110

University of Zambia
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

An introduction and overview of Eurocodes

Eurocodes are the European standards for
structural design, it comprises the following
standards :

 EN1990 Eurocode: Basis of structural design

 EN1991 Eurocode 1: Actions on structures
 EN1992 Eurocode 2: Design of concrete structures

 EN1993 Eurocode 3: Design of steel structures

 EN1994 Eurocode 4: Design of composite steel

and concrete structures

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 University of Zambia
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

An introduction to Eurocodes

 EN1995 Eurocode 5: Design of timber structures

 EN1996 Eurocode 6: Design of masonry structures

 EN1997 Eurocode 7: Geotechnical design

 EN1998 Eurocode 8: Design of structures for

earthquake resistance

 EN1999 Eurocode 9: Design of aluminium structures

University of Zambia
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Introduction to BS 8110
 BS 8110 applies to structural use of concrete.

 BS 8110 is based on limit state principles and

comes in several parts as following:
 Part 1:1997: Code of practice for design and
construction
 Part 2:1985: Code of practice for special
circumstances
 Part 3:1985: Design charts for singly
reinforced beams, doubly
reinforced beams and
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rectangular columns
 University of Zambia
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Part 1:1997: Code of practice for design and

construction
 Part 1 of BS 8110, gives a general basis for the
design of buildings and civil engineering works
in Reinforced and Prestressed concrete made
with normal weight aggregates.
 The purpose of this part of the course is to
describe the contents of BS 8110-1-1997 and to
design simple concrete structural elements, such
as beams, columns, slabs and foundations
following guidance contained in this code of
practice.
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University of Zambia
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Material properties of concrete

 Characteristic strength of concrete (clause
2.4.2, BS 8110-1-1997):
 The design rules in BS 8110 are based on the
characteristic 28-day compressive strength of
concrete cubes, f cu

 Strength class C25 refers to cube strengths of

25 N/mm2

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 University of Zambia
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Material properties of reinforcing steel

 Characteristic strength of reinforcing steel
(clause 3.1.7.4, BS 8110-1-1997):

The code specifies 250N/mm2 and 460N/mm2

respectively for hot rolled mild steel and high
tensile steel.
BS 4449-2005 can be then used for detailed
specification of reinforcing steel.

University of Zambia
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Material properties of prestressing steel

 Prestressing steel should comply with EN 10138.

 The properties of prestressing are given in

EN 10138, Part 2 to 4.

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 University of Zambia
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Design strengths (clause 2.4.4.1, BS 8110-1-

1997)
Xk
Xd 
M
Where
X d is the design strength of material
X k is the characteristic strength of material
 M is partial safety factor of material
 c 1.5 for concrete
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 s 1.05 for steel reinforcem ent

University of Zambia
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Stress-strain curves of concrete

(clause 2.6.2, BS 8110-1-1997)

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 University of Zambia
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Stress-strain curves of reinforcing steel

(clause 2.6.2, BS 8110-1-1997)

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University of Zambia
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Stress-strain curves of prestressing steel

(clause 2.6.2, BS 8110-1-1997)

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 University of Zambia
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Loads (clause 2.4.1, BS 8110-1-1997)

Characteristic Loads:
 The characteristic values of Loads (Fk), are
specified in:

 BS 8110-1-1997(see clause 2.4.1.1)

 Other relevant loading codes, such as BS

648, BS 6399, CP3.

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University of Zambia
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Design Loads:
The design loads (Fd), are obtained by:

Fd   F Fk
Where,
F is partial safety factor for loads

 G 1.4 for dead loads

 Q  1. 6 for live loads

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 University of Zambia
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Fire resistance
 Clause 3.3.6 of BS 8110-1-1997 deals with provisions
for cover for structural fire design of concrete structure.

 The fire resistance of a reinforced concrete member is

achieved by ensuring the provision of minimum
dimensions and nominal cover for the member.
 The tabulated data of the nominal cover and minimum
dimensions of RC members for fire resistance can be
seen in the tables overleaf.

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University of Zambia
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Nominal cover for fire resistance (Table 3.4, BS

8110 Part 1)
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 University of Zambia
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Minimum dimensions of
RC members for fire
resistance (Fig. 3.2, BS
8110 Part 1)

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University of Zambia
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Durability (Clause 3.1.5.2, BS 8110-1-1997)

 The durability of concrete structures is related to:

 Environmental conditions

 Cover to reinforcement

 Concrete quality

 Maximum crack width

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 University of Zambia
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Maximum crack width

 BS 8110 recommend that the maximum design crack
width should not generally exceed 0.3 mm

 The limiting crack width is achieved in practice by:

(a) Providing a minimum amount of reinforcement

(b) Limiting the maximum bar spacing or bar size.

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University of Zambia
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Design of normal reinforced concrete beams

 Reinforced concrete beam should be designed to
adequately resist the ultimate bending moments, shear
forces and torsional moments
 At the same time serviceability requirements must be
considered to ensure that the member will behave
satisfactorily under working loads

 The design procedure may be condensed into three

basic stages:
1) preliminary analysis and member sizing

2) detailed analysis and design of reinforcement

3) serviceability calculations.
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 University of Zambia
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Analysis of the section

 To determine cross-section’s ultimate moment of
resistance, the following assumptions can be made:
 Plane sections remain plane

 The strain in bonded reinforcement, whether in tension

or compression, is the same as that in the surrounding
concrete
 The tensile strength of the concrete is ignored
 The compressive stresses in the concrete may
be derived from the design curve (Fig. 2.1, BS
8110-1-1997)
 The stresses in the reinforcement may be
derived from Fig. 2.2, BS 8110-1997.
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University of Zambia
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Singly reinforced beams with rectangular

section

Singly reinforced concrete section with rectangular stress

block: (a) section; (b) strain; (c) stress block (BS 8110)

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 University of Zambia
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Simplified rectangular stress block

 In BS 8110 the maximum concrete compressive
stress is taken
0.67asf cu / 1.5
 The stress block has a depth s  0. 9 x

 The centroid of the stress block being from

the top edge of the section s / 2  0.4 5 x

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University of Zambia
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Singly reinforced beams with rectangular section

The ultimate moment of resistance of the section

M u  Fc z
where,

(0.67 f cu ) 0.9 x b
Fc 
1.5
z  d  0 .4 5 x
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 University of Zambia
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

 At the ultimate limit state it is important that member

sections in flexure should be ductile.
 Sections’ failure should occur with the gradual yielding of
the tension steel and not by a sudden catastrophic
compression failure of the concrete.
 In order to provide a ductile type condition, BS 8110
limits the depth of the neutral axis (x) to:
x=0.5d for all concrete grades
and where redistribution of moments does not exceed 10%.

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University of Zambia
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

x  0 .5 d
Replacing for x into the lever arm equation and
resolving the moment equation gives,

2
M u  0.156 f cu b d
If design moment M  Mu

The beam can be designed as singly reinforced beam

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 University of Zambia
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

The area of tension reinforcement As1 can be

calculated as following:

M  Fs z
f y As1
Fs 
1.05
M
As1 
0.95 f y z
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University of Zambia
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

The lever arm z can be determined as following:

 0.67 f 
M  Fc z   cu  0.9 b x z z  d  0.4 5 x
 1.5 
 
 0.9 f cu b d  z  z
Solving for z gives

z  d 0.5   0.25  K ' / 0.9

M z
K'  0.95
f cu b d 2 d
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 University of Zambia
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Doubly reinforced beams with rectangular section

Doubly reinforced section: (a) section, (b) strain,

(c) stress block.
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University of Zambia
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

 If M  M u then compression reinforcement is required

 In order to ensure a tension failure with a ductile section:

The depth to the
neutral axis is
limited to: x  0.5d
Therefore

z  d  s / 2  d  0.9 x / 2
 d  0.9  0.5 d / 2  0.775 d

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 University of Zambia
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

For equilibrium of the section

Fs1  Fc  Fs 2
with the reinforcement at yield
0.67 f cu
0.95 f y As1  b s  0.95 f y As 2
1.5

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University of Zambia
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

or with

s  0.9  0.5 d  0.45d

0.95 f y As1  0.201 f cu b d  0.95 f y As 2

Taking moments about the

centroid of the tension steel, As1

M  Fc z  Fs 2 d  d '
 0.201 f cu b d  0.775 d  0.95 f y As 2 d  d '
 0.156 f cu b d 2  0.95 f y As 2 d  d '
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 University of Zambia
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Hence the areas of compression steel, we simply make As2

the subject of the previous equation and obtain:

M  0.156 f cu b d 2 M  Mu
As 2  
0.95 f y d  d ' 0.95 f y d  d '
Thus tension reinforcement can then
be calculated as shown below

0.156 f cu b d 2 Mu
As1   As 2   As 2
0.95 f y z 0.95 f y z

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University of Zambia
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Using K '  0.156 and K  M / b d 2 f cu

As 2 
K  K  f '
cu bd2
0.95 f y d  d '
K ' f cu b d 2
As1   As 2
0.95 f y z
 sc 0.0035

x d' x
d'  sc
1
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x 0.0035
 University of Zambia
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

At yield with f y  460 N / mm2, the steel strain

 sc   y  0.002
Therefore for yielding of the compression steel
d' 0.002
1  0.43
x 0.0035
or with x  0.5 d
d'
 0.215
d
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University of Zambia
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

If d ' / d  0.215, then it is necessary to calculate

strain  sc

The stress of compressive steel can be determined as:

f sc  Es  sc
 200000  sc

0.156 f cu b d 2 f sc
As1   As 2 
0.95 f y z 0.95 f y

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 University of Zambia
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

 The effective breadth b of the flanged beams is given by:

T beams – web width b  l z or actual flange width
w
if less. 10
L beams – web width l or actual flange width
bw  z
if less. 5
lz is the distance between points of zero moments (for
continuous beams it may be taken as 0.7 times the
effective span)

 To ensure a gradual tension type failure with yielding of

the tension reinforcement, that is

x  0.5 d

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University of Zambia
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

 The table 3.25 below shows the minimum recommended

reinforcement areas for beams(Clause 3.12.5.3, BS 8110-1)

 The maximum either tension or compression reinforcement

areas shall not exceed 4% of cross-sectional area of
38 concrete (Clause 3.12.6.1, BS 8110-1)
 University of Zambia
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

K '  0.156

39

University of Zambia
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Worked example 2 : (Sizing of a concrete beam)

Consider a simply supported reinforced concrete beam of 7.5m span. The
beam is carrying characteristic dead (gk) and live (qk) loads of 12.5 KN/m
and 10KN/m respectively. Determine suitable dimensions of effective
depth and width of the beam.

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 University of Zambia
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Worked Example 3 :
Consider a simply supported reinforced
concrete beam of 7.5 m span. The beam
dimensions are breadth, b, 275 mm and
effective depth, d, 450 mm; Assuming
the following:
characteristic compressive strength
of concrete f cu  30 N / mm 2;
characteristic strength of reinforcing
steel f y  460 N / mm2 ;
permanent loading is g k  15kN / m ;
variable loading is
k q  8kN / m;
According to BS 8110 calculate required
bending reinforcement for the beam.

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University of Zambia
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Worked example 4 :
Consider a simply supported reinforced
concrete beam of 9 m span. The beam
dimensions are breadth, b, 230 mm and
height, h, 370 mm; Assuming the
following:
characteristic compressive strength
of concrete f cu  30 N / mm 2 ;
characteristic strength of reinforcing
steel f y  460 N / mm2 ;
permanent loading is g k  6kN / m ;
variable loading is qk  5kN / m ;
According to BS 8110 calculate required
bending reinforcement for the beam.

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