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Concrete wall design aspects
Concrete wall design aspects
Concrete type
While you can apply both normal and lightweight concrete in the wall properties, wall design using lightweight concrete is currently beyond scope.
End 1 and End 2 extensions
Wall extensions (End 1/End 2) can be applied in the wall properties in order to remove physical overlaps with adjoining walls and columns without compromising the integrity of the underlying analysis model.
Negative extensions can be created automatically where appropriate. Extensions can also be defined manually if required, in which case they can be input with either positive or negative values:
- A positive extension extends the wall length beyond its insertion point.
- A negative extension trims the wall back from the insertion point.
Although the length of the wall used in the analysis model (Lwall) is unchanged, the wall length that is used in the design, quantity reporting and drawings changes to Lwall,d
Reinforcement layers
Either one or two layers of reinforcement can be specified in the wall properties.
Design parameters (Eurocode only)
Located under the Design parameters heading in the wall properties, the following parameters relating to shrinkage and creep can be specified for individual walls.
Permanent Load Ratio
The permanent load ratio is used in the equation for determining the service stress in the reinforcement, which is in turn used in table 7.3N to determine the maximum allowable centre to centre bar spacing. It is also used to calculate the effective creep ratio which appears in the column slenderness ratio calculations.
It is defined as the ratio of quasi-permanent load to design ultimate load.
i.e. SLS/ULS = (1.0Gk + Ψ2Qk) / (factored Gk + factored Qk*IL reduction)
If Qk is taken as 0 then:
SLS/ULS = (1 / 1.25) = 0.8
Hence, setting the permanent load ratio to 0.8 should provide a conservative upper bound for all cases.
When determining this ratio more precisely, consideration should be given to the amount of IL reduction specified, for example (assuming Gk = Qk and Ψ2 = 0.3):
For 50%IL reduction,
SLS/ULS = (1 + 0.3) / (1.25 + 1.5*0.5) = 0.65
For no IL reduction,
SLS/ULS = (1 + 0.3) / (1.25 + 1.5) = 0.47
Relative Humidity
Typical input range 20 to 100%
Age of Loading
This is the age at which load is first applied to the member.
Sway/Drift Checks
By default all panels of all walls are taken into account in the sway/drift , wind drift and seismic drift checks.
Located under the Sway and drift checks heading in the wall properties, these parameters provides a facility to exclude particular wall panels from these calculations to avoid spurious results associated with very small stack lengths. You can either clear the check box located under 'All panels' to exclude the entire wall, or you can exclude a particular panel by clearing the check box located under that panel only.
Confinement reinforcement
Located under the Confinement reinforcement heading in the wall properties, the Provide support regions setting determines the way each panel is divided into regions for the purpose of designing the confinement reinforcement.
- Checked - confinement reinforcement is designed separately in three regions.
- Cleared - the same confinement reinforcement is designed for the whole panel.
Slenderness
Located under the Slenderness heading in the wall properties, the significant parameter within the slenderness criteria is a choice of how the wall is contributing to the stability of the structure.
- bracing - provides lateral stability to the structure.
- braced - considered to be braced by other stabilizing members.
The second slenderness parameter is the effective length factor, which is either input directly by choosing the User input value option, or it is calculated in accordance with the requirements of the selected design code.
Stiffness
The stiffness settings affect the calculation of clear height, also referred to as the unsupported or unrestrained length (depending on the head code being worked to) which is the clear dimension between the restraining beams at the bottom of the panel and the restraining beams at the top of the panel. The unsupported length may be different in each direction.
Effective Concrete Beams
An effective concrete beam is one which provides stiffness at a restraint position. A concrete beam is only considered effective if it is "fixed" at the position where it joins to the wall. Concrete beams are only effective in a direction if they are within 45° of that direction, and therefore no concrete beam can be effective in both directions. A concrete beam is only effective if its angle to the horizontal is 45° or less.
A concrete beam only restrains the end of the panel if it is within the depth of the panel section from the end of the stack, and if its centre is nearer to this end of the panel than the far end. Therefore, at a node at a panel join, if the top of the beam is below the node by a dimension greater than the depth of the panel below the node, it is not considered. Similarly, if the bottom of the beam is above the node by a dimension greater than the depth of the panel above the node, it is not considered.
Effective flat slabs/other types of slab
When determining the unsupported length, if no effective beams are found at the end of a panel, Tekla Structural Designer considers whether there is a flat slab restraining the panel at that end. The Use slab for calculation... upper/lower, major/minor options, (which are located under the Stiffness heading in the wall properties), are used to indicate whether any such slab should be considered as a restraint.
If there are no effective beams and there is no flat slab, the program looks for any other type of slab panel at that end. If a panel is found, then provided it has the Include in diaphragm property selected, it acts as a restraint at the position, in the same way as a flat slab.
A flat slab or any other type of slab panel only restrains the end of the panel if it is within half the slab depth from the end of the panel, and if its centre is nearer to this end of the panel than the far end.
If, at an end of the panel, no effective beams, flat slab or other slab panel that acts as a restraint is found, then the unsupported length includes the panel beyond this restraint, and the same rules apply for finding the end of the unsupported length at the end of the next panel (and so on). If there is no panel beyond this restraint (i.e. this is the end of the wall), the unsupported length ends at the end of the wall.
Nominal cover
Nominal concrete cover is specified in the wall properties.
For walls, it is measured as follows:
- For 1 layer of reinforcement, the vertical bar is on the centre-line of the wall thickness, the face of the horizontal bar is closest to the critical concrete face.
- For 2 layers of reinforcement, the horizontal bars are placed outside the vertical bars at each face.
The nominal concrete cover is measured to the face of the horizontal bar or any link/confinement transverse reinforcement that may be present.
Reinforcement
Under the Reinforcement heading in the wall properties, the Reinforcement layers, Form and Include end zones properties can be combined as required in order to obtain a range of reinforcement patterns, e.g:
- Single layer, using mesh reinforcement
- Two layers, using mesh reinforcement
- Single layer, using loose bars
- Two layers, using loose bars
- End zones, with a single layer of mesh in the mid zone
- End zones, with two layers of mesh in the mid zone
- End zones, with a single layer of loose bars in the mid zone
- End zones, with two layers of loose bars in the mid zone