FLAT PLATE

DEFINITION

- A concrete slab of uniform thickness reinforced in two or more directions and supported directly
by columns without beams or girders.
- Flat plates are suitable for short to medium spans with relatively light live loads. Since there are
no column capitals or drop panels, shear governs the thickness of flat plate.
- The flat plate floor system is a common floor construction type employed in the construction of
the building.
- The economical span of a flat plate for low to medium loads is usually limited by the need to
control long-term deflection and may need to be sensibly pre-cambered (not overdone) or
prestressed.

Features

The important features of the flat plate floor system are enlisted below:

- One of the important features of a flat plate floor system is the thickness of the floor. It is
constructed with uniform thickness with a flat soffit.
- The soffit constructed for a flat plate system requires simple formwork which hence makes the
construction easier.
- The flat plate floor system is the best choice for serving the purpose of a horizontal floor over a
suspended ceiling.
- The flat plate floor is constructed with an economical span that takes up medium loads and
avoids the chances of long-term deflection.
- A flat plate floor system depending upon the load and deflection criteria can be either pre-
cambered or prestressed.

Advantages

- Inexpensive Formwork
- Ceilings May Be Exposed
- Minimum Thickness
- Fast Erection
- Flexible Column Location

Disadvantages

- Excess Concrete for Longer Spans

- A flat plate floor can be constructed with an economical span of 6 to 8m for ordinary reinforced
flat plate floor. For prestressed construction, the economical span can be increased to 8 to 12m.

In general, if D is the depth of the slab, then

- Span ‘L’ for a Simply Supported Reinforced Concrete Flat Plate System = D x 28
- Span ‘L’ for an End Span Continuous Reinforced Concrete Flat Plate System = D x 30
- Span ‘L’ for an Internal Continuous spanned Reinforced Concrete Flat Plate System = D x 32

If the flat plate system is prestressed, the span L can change to D x 30, Dx 37 and D x 40 respectively.

History

Early History 1905 – 1921

- The first American flat plate building was the C. A. Bovey Building in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It
was built by C.A.P. Tuner in 1906. It was raised at the risk of its inventor but performed well in
the loading test.

Application

- Primarily used in hotels, multi-family residential buildings, and hospitals, this system has the
advantages of simple construction and formwork and a flat ceiling, the latter of which reduces
ceiling finishing costs, since the architectural finish can be applied directly to the underside of
the slab

Usage

- Office buildings – Low Rise & High Rise

Economic Span Range

- 5-8m (Conventional RC)

Uses Of Column Heads (Capital)

⋅ Shear strength of flat slab is increased by using column heads.

⋅ Column heads reduce the clear or effective span, and therefore, reduce the moment in the flat slab
floor.

 
Uses Of Drop Panels:

⋅ Drop panels increase the shear strength of flat slab floor.

⋅ Drop panels increase flat slab's negative moment capacity.

Material Properties

Strength

Reinforced concrete has very good strength in tension as well as compression. This makes concrete a
desired construction material.

Economical

Concrete constituents are widely available worldwide and inexpensive. Similarly, the production cost of
concrete is very low. There is an overall economy by using reinforced concrete because its maintenance
cost is low due to the long-lasting nature of reinforced concrete.

Reinforced concrete durability, resilience, low maintenance requirements and energy efficiency,
concrete structures reduce operating costs related to operational energy consumption, maintenance,
and rebuilding following disasters.

Versatility

Concrete can be placed into various shapes of shuttering or formwork configurations to form desired
shapes, form, surface, texture, and sizes at construction site. This is because fresh concrete is flowable
and is in liquid state. Therefore, it is more suitable for architectural requirements.

Durability

Due to low permeability, concrete can resist chemicals dissolved in water such as sulfates, chloride, and
carbon dioxide, which may cause corrosion in concrete, without serious deterioration.

Fire Resistance

 The nature of concrete does not allow it to catch fire or burn. It can withstand heat for 2–6 hours
enabling sufficient time for rescue operations in case of fire. Reinforced concrete buildings are more fire-
resistant than other commonly used construction materials like steel and wood. It is suitable to fireproof
steel and is used in high-temperature and blast applications.

Erection - Fasteners, Connections

- The main consideration for steel column connection to flat plate is to ensure that the base plate
for the steel columns is cast into the concrete flat plate.
- Hence the positioning and alignment of the base plates are of utmost importance. If concrete in-
fill and column bars are required within the steel hollow section, the starter bars for the
columns must be placed and fixed in position prior to casting of concrete flat plate.
- In the concrete column with flat plate design, the connection is more simplified without the
need for base plate connection.
- In this case, reinforcement bars should be properly detailed between the columns and slabs.
Punching shear checks are critical and vertical shear reinforcement should be detailed
accordingly.
Fire Resistance

A flat plate under severe fire condition experiences significant load redistribution. When the fire load is
applied beneath the slab, columns restrain slab flexural deformation induced by thermal gradient,
resulting in increased slab negative bending moment near the columns. Moreover, the slab top
reinforcement remains relatively cool while bottom reinforcement heats up. The elevated temperature
may cause the bottom bars at mid-span to yield at low stress. The load redistribution leads to high
negative moment and large inelastic flexural deformation in slab near columns, which likely triggers to a
punching failure of the flat plate structure.

Classification of Flat Slab

a) Based on structural design

1. Conventional reinforced flat slabs and

2. Post tensioned flat slabs

b) Based on the components of slab

1. Slabs without drop and column head.

2. Slabs without drop and column with column head

3. Slabs with drop and column head

Thickness of flat slab:

- The thickness of flat slab shall be generally controlled by considerations of span to effective depth
ratio.
General Considerations for use of Flat slab Floor System

The following are the main factors to be considered before adopting the use of the concrete flat plate
with steel/concrete column system:

1. Spacing of columns

2. Long term deflection of the flat plate

3. Punching shear checks at column areas.

Steps involved in the design of flat slab structures

1) Framing system

2) Engineering analysis

3) Reinforcement design and detailing

Engineering Analysis

Flat plate/slab may be analyzed and designed by any method if they satisfy the strength, stiffness, and
stability requirements of the IS 456:2000 or ACI-318 codes. A typical flat plate/slab can be analyzed by
direct design method or equivalent frame method as prescribed by the code. However, if the flat
plate/slab is a typical one with unusual geometry, with irregular column spacing, or with big opening
then the designer can use finite element method model analysis using various software. The design of
flat slabs irrespective of the methodology used must first assume a minimum slab and drop thickness
and a minimum column dimension to ensure adequate stiffness of the system to control deflection. The
IS 456:2000 code is not clear on these minimum conditions. However, ACI specifies empirical formulae
to arrive at these minimums. Critical reactions for the load combinations are used for the design of the
supporting columns and foundations.

Seismic Design of Flat Plate/Slab (Vulnerability and Strength)

Seismic design lateral force is based on the provisions of Indian Standard IS 1893 (Criteria for Earthquake
Resistant Design of Structure), however of IS1893 is not clear about it. Hence a designer, in addition may
use, other codes like UBC-2000 (Uniform Building Code) to design an effective floor system. As per these
codes a common practice is to determine lateral force by considering either of static or a dynamic
procedure. In this paper seismic design is not discussed.

Environmental Impact

- The use of post tensioning can significantly reduce the concrete volume and steel mass required
for a structure, and further result in significant overall building weight reductions leading to
potential foundation material savings.
- It was found that span length greatly influenced the achievable reductions in material savings
when post tensioning is utilised. Due to the carbon dioxide equivalent emissions being directly
proportional to the embodied energy, the savings in embodied energy and global warming
potential using post tensioning was found to be almost identical. It was evident that the use of
 post tensioning in structures of spans smaller than 8 metres is potentially unnecessary from an
environmental standpoint as there is very little improved environmental performance as the
embodied energy of these structures are equal to or less than the embodied energy of spans
10m and larger when post tensioning is utilised. The outcomes from these results provide
confirmation that post tensioned construction can achieve a capital embodied environmental
impact cost that is less than that of the fully reinforced option. The effectiveness of post
tensioning is also seen to increase with a corresponding increase in span length.

Study About the Environmental Impact Of Flat Plate Building

- In this research, a flat plate building is investigated considering different column spacings,
concrete strengths, structural component sizes, detailed reinforcements, and for the application
of Reinforced Concrete (RC) and Post-Tensioned (PT) construction techniques. While the
most sustainable designs of slab systems are attained with shorter slab spans and thinner slab
depths, columns having less longitudinal reinforcement with a moderate rise in dimensions are
the best options. Furthermore, the employment of pre-stressed tendons results in a significant
decrease in material requirements and related embodied impacts, by 26.3–33.5% and 26.6–
33.8%, respectively. The outcomes indicated that reduction in a building's self-weight does not
necessarily mean a decline in embodied emissions, highlighting the trade-offs between material
saving and material carbon intensiveness in the decisions towards sustainable design and
construction.

Case Study

Title: A Study of Flat Plate Slab – column Connections with Shear Plate in Tall Concrete Building using
Experimental and Numerical Analysis

Abstract

The trend of urban building structures shows a type of high rise building due to the concentration and
increase of population into urban cities, rapid increase of land cost, and limited availability of land. Such
a trend is not only a worldly demand but also no exception in Asian cities. To facilitate the demand of
high-rise structures, various types of structural system have been used domestically. Among those
structural systems, there has been a high demand in using a flat plate slab system specially in the mix
use high rise buildings including commercial and residential uses because the systems have various
following advantages. The system can minimize the ceiling height which can reduce a total building
height and reduce the corresponding material cost. The system also provides a room for flexible spatial
planning. It has an advantage of time saving because it makes easy form installation and stripping
because there are no beams. It also reduces noise transmission between floors due to the thick concrete
slab. However, the system carries a disadvantage of punching shear due to the absence of beams.
Reinforcing method of flat plate-column connection has been studied in this paper. This research is to
study the response of flat plate slab-column connections consisting of various types of shear
reinforcement and steel plate subjected to gravity loadings using the structural experiments and
numerical analysis in tall buildings. The four test specimens were prepared to model the interior bay flat
plate slab-column connections in a typical flat plate slab building. The base specimen has no shear
reinforcement, and the other specimens have shear studs with strip base, shear studs with short steel
plates under the slab and on the top portion of the column, and shear studs with long steel plates under
the slab and on top portion of the column. The base specimen failed due to punching shear generated
from the gravity loading. The three other types of slab shear reinforcement and steel plate showed
effective in resisting punching shear for these types of connections under gravity loading. The specimen
containing studs with steel plate showed the most ductile behavior under the gravity loading. The
structural behavior of the four specimens has been tested using the structural experiment and the
numerical method.

Keywords: Punching Shear capacity, Flat Plate Slab, Shear Studs, Stud with Steel Plate.