CEE 421 – Concrete Structures; School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built

Environment, Arizona State University

DESIGN OF ONE-WAY SLABS

A floor plan is shown below. The girders span the columns, and the beams (or joists) span the
girders.

Dr. Narayanan Neithalath

 CEE 421 – Concrete Structures; School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built
Environment, Arizona State University

In a concrete floor system where the ratio of the longer to shorter span of a slab is greater than
or equal to 2, the flexural reinforcement is provided to resist the entire load in the short direction.
Only minimum steel to resist temperature and shrinkage effects are provided in the long direction.
Such slabs are called one-way slabs because they are designed to carry load in only one direction.

One way slabs are designed as beams having unit width (1’). The loading in slabs are usually
represented in terms of load per unit area.

One way of designing one way slabs is using the moment and shear coefficients developed by ACI.
This methodology is based on the fact that largest moments in continuous beams or frames develop
when some spans are loaded and some are not. Influence lines (remember them from classes
before) are used to determine which spans should and should not be loaded. ACI developed a
simplified method as an alternate to the detailed analysis for design of continuous beams and one-
way slabs which we will use in this class.

For slabs, as is the case with beams, we can consider the typical governing load combination as:
wu = 1.2 wD + 1.6 wL

If this is the case, ACI moment and shear coefficients can be used. If the condition of wu = 1.4wD
governs, a full structural analysis must be carried out before design.

The simplified ACI moment and shear coefficients can be used only if the following conditions are
satisfied: (Section 6.5.1 of ACI 318-14)
a) There are 2 or more spans
b) Spans are approximately equal (not more than 20% difference)
c) Loads are uniformly distributed
d) Unfactored live load does not exceed three times the unfactored dead load
e) Members are prismatic
Violation of any of these conditions would necessitate a full structural analysis.

Moment and shear coefficients are provided in Section 6.5.2 of ACI 318-14. The coefficients for
positive and negative moments, and shears at different spans and supports are given.
The maximum positive and negative moments and shears are computed from the following
expressions:
Mu = Cm (wu ln2)
Vu = Cv (wuln/2)
Cm and Cv are moment and shear coefficients.

Dr. Narayanan Neithalath

 CEE 421 – Concrete Structures; School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built
Environment, Arizona State University

Please read the section in the code well and understand which coefficients are to be used in
analysis.
For all positive midspan moments, negative moment at exterior supports, and shears, l n is the span
length under consideration. For negative moment at interior supports, ln is the average span length
of the adjacent spans as shown below.

For design purposes, a one way slab is assumed to act as a series of parallel, independent 1 ft wide
strips of slab, continuous over the supporting beams. The slab strips span the short direction of the
panel as shown in the figure below. In this figure, the thick lines are the girders and the thin lines
are the beams.

Thickness of one-way slabs

Normally, thicknesses of one-way slabs are chosen for deflections (Table 9.5(a) in ACI 318-11). The
adequacy of the selected thickness should be checked for shear and flexure also.
Cover to reinforcing steel
ACI 318 – section 20.6.1
Not exposed to weather (i.e., moisture changes) – ¾ in for #11 bars and smaller – usual for
underside of exterior slabs also, as well as for all interior slabs
Exposed to weather and in contact with ground – 1.5 in for #5 bars and smaller, 2 in for #6 bars and
larger

Dr. Narayanan Neithalath

 CEE 421 – Concrete Structures; School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built
Environment, Arizona State University

Permanently exposed to ground - 3 in

Reinforcement
See the figure below for reinforcement details of one-way slabs.
As mentioned earlier, one way slabs are designed by assuming a 1 ft wide strip. The area of
reinforcement is then computed as the As per ft (As/ft) of width. The steel area is the product of the
area of bars times the number of bars per ft.
 12in 
As/ft = Ab  
 bar spacing in inches 
Ab is the area of one bar and the bar spacing in inches is denoted as ‘s’.

In most cases, the required steel area would be known, so can solve to get the bar spacing
 Ab .12in 
s  
 required As / ft 

The maximum spacing of bars used as primary flexural reinforcement in one-way slabs is three
times the slab thickness or 18 in, whichever is smaller (ACI 318-14 Section 7.7.2.3). The maximum
bar spacing is also governed by crack control provisions (ACI 318-14 Section 24.3.2)
The thin slab sections are more susceptible to shrinkage cracking. To limit the width of shrinkage
cracking, shrinkage and temperature reinforcement are placed perpendicular to the primary
flexural reinforcement. The amount of shrinkage and temperature reinforcement is given in ACI
318 Section 7.6.1.1. The following ratios of reinforcement area to gross concrete area are used:
Slabs with Grade 40 or 50 deformed bars: 0.0020
Slabs with Grade 60 deformed bars (please see 7.12.2.1) – 0.0018

Dr. Narayanan Neithalath

 CEE 421 – Concrete Structures; School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built
Environment, Arizona State University

Slabs with reinforcement having fy greater than 60 ksi: (0.0018 x 60,000 psi)/fy, but not less than
0.0014
ACI 318 Section 7.6.4.1 specifies that the minimum shrinkage and temperature reinforcement shall
be in accordance with 24.4. Maximum spacing of flexural reinforcement is 3 times the slab
thickness or as limited by ACI 318 Section 10.6.4.
Shrinkage and temperature reinforcement is spaced not farther apart than the smaller of 5 times
the slab thickness and 18 in. (24.4.3.3)
Generally, #4 and larger bars are used as flexural reinforcement in slabs because smaller bars are
difficult to keep and retain in position.

Dr. Narayanan Neithalath