Load Distribution

Chapter 3
Loads and load distribution

Prof. Dr. Fathy Saad

October 2015

Load Distribution

3.Load Distribution on R/C Solid Slabs

3.1 Types of Loads
There are several types of loads that may act on a structure and can be
categorized as follows:
i. Dead Loads: These are constant in magnitude and fixed in loacation for
the lifetime of the structure. A major part of the dead loads results from the
own weight of the structure itself. The dead loads are also include sand
required for leveling of the flooring, flooring material and brick walls.
ii. Live Loads: These loads depend mainly on the use of the structure. For
buildings, live loads are the results of occupants and furniture. In bridges,
vechile loads represent the major live load. Their magnitude and location
are variable.
iii. Lateral Loads: These are the loads resulting from wind pressure,
earthquake loads, soil pressure and fluid pressure. In recent years,
significant progress has been made to accurately estimate the horizontal
forces due to wind or earthquake.

3.2 Load Distribution

The safety and accuracy of any design process for various structures is
based mainly on the correct choice of the magnitude and the nature of the
applied loads. Accordingly, social care must be given to the load
assessment. The dissention between the working or service loads used in
the working stress design method (WSD) and the factored load or ultimate
load used in the limit state design method (L.S.D) as will be mentioned
below must be taken into consideration. Also, all the possible load
combination must be investigated to obtain the absolute straining actions.
Prof. Dr. Fathy Saad

October 2015

Load Distribution
Every attempt should be made to reduce the dead load which is required to
be sustained by individual members.

3.2.1 Load Distribution on Floor and Roof Slabs

In general, slabs are usually subjected to uniform loads. The load on slab is
calculated per unit area, the load on slab can be classified to the following:
i. The own weight of the slab: which equal to ts x c where ts is the
thickness of the slab and the gc is the unit weight of concrete. c is taken
25 kN/m` for the reinforced concrete as average value.
ii. Weight of the floor and ceiling finishes: which is called floor cover
(F.C /m2), where ts is the slab thickness and gc is the density of concrete.
The floor cover intensity depends on the type of floor finish. The Egyptian
Code for loads state the values of unit weight of different materials (table
3-1 Code ).
Prof. Dr. Fathy Saad

October 2015

Load Distribution
iii. The live load; this depends on the building type and nature (residential,
hospital, school,industrial,.etc.). Different values for live loads are
given in table (4-1),in the Egyptian Code of loads.

Loads Transferred to Floor Beams

This loads can be briefly described as:
i.Reactions transmitted from other beams: which may be supported on
the beam under consideration.
ii.The own weight of the beam: An initial estimate of the o.w. of the
beam is made by assuming the depth which satisfies the deflection
requirement of the beam. This depth may be assumed ranging between
L/5 to L/21 according to the type of beam (see Egyptian Code table
4.10).

Prof. Dr. Fathy Saad

October 2015

Load Distribution

iii.The wall loads: walls are considered as a direct load on the floor
beams. the weight of the wall depends on its type and height. there are
different types of walls like solid bricks with opening, and light weight
walls. the unit wt of bricks, brick varies between 17 kN/m3 and 7
kN/m3. for simplification, all the wall weight will be considered on the
beam using the following equation.
The weight of walls /m` can be calculated as load of wall /m` = tw.w.hw
Where:
tw: the thickness of wall and taken by the thickness of plaster into
consideration.
w: unit wt of bricks used.
hw: clear height of wall.

Prof. Dr. Fathy Saad

October 2015

Load Distribution
iv.The floor slab load: The magnitude and distribution of the load
transmitted from the floor slab to the supporting beam depends on the
dimension of the slab. The slabs are classified to:
a) One way slabs.
b) Two way slabs.

a) One way slabs.

One way slab is a panel slab supported a long two sides only or on all four
sides. but with rectangularity ratio (r) length / width ratio 2.0 [L/2x 2.0].
In this case the load will be transmitted in the short direction to the beam
along the longitudinal sides of the panel slab, as shown in Fig.

b) Two way slabs.

Two way slab is a panel slab supported a long four sides with
rectangularity ratio (r) length / width < 2.0 ( L / 2X < 2.0 ).
In this case, the slab loads are transmitted to both principal directions of
the four beams within tributary areas bounded by the intersection of 45
lines drawn from the corners with the longitudinal center lines of adjacent
panels as shown in fig. All beams must be in the same boundary conditions.

Prof. Dr. Fathy Saad

October 2015

Load Distribution

In case of one way slab system, the load transmitted to a supporting beam
is uniformly distributed along its length. In two way slab, the slab load
transmitted to supporting beam is non uniform load along its length as
triangular or trapezoidal. For convenience, the non uniform loads may be
replaced by uniform distributed loads. The equivalent uniformly distributed
loads produces the same bending moment and shearing force as the original
non uniform distributed loads. In either, the beam is assumed simply
supported consider the two way slab as shown in fig. with L / b < 2
B2
weq. = Factor * wslab
X

B2

B1

B2

b = 2X

weq. = Factor * wslab

B1

B1

Factor = Ca or Ce

Prof. Dr. Fathy Saad

October 2015

Load Distribution
Where
Ca = The coefficient of equivalent distributed load for shear
Ce = The coefficient of equivalent distributed load for moment

The using of equivalent coefficient Ca, Ce for moment and shear was
based on the assumptions that the beam is simply supported and that the
slab load of one tributary area on each side. For cantilevers or beams
assigned loads on more than one tributary area on either sides, an
equivalent uniformly distributed load equal the total areas on the span /
divided by beam length and multiplied by the intensity of dead or live
load of slab. This equivalent uniformly distributed load used for
computing the maximum moment as well as maximum shear and
reactions.
Equivalent uniform load for beam:
B1

A1 A 2 A 3 A 4
* w slab
L

Where
Ai = The area of tributary triangular.

Prof. Dr. Fathy Saad

October 2015

Load Distribution

Inclined Slab
All Applied loads are on inclined projection. Except live load which is
applied on horizontal projection, so it should be multiplied by Cos to
transfer it to inclined projection.
W = g + P Cos

W L L'
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3.3 Loads for ULS and SLS

According to the Limit State Design Method, members are designed with
a capacity that is much greater than required to support the anticipated
working loads. Thats why the anticipated working loads are multiplied by
safety factors of values greater than unity called load factors. This extra
capacity not only provides a factor of safety against failure by accidental
overload or defective construction but also limits the level stress under
service loads to control deflection and cracking.

3.3.1 Serviceability Limit States (SLS)

These include all types that affect the functional use of the structure and
can be classified as follows:
Deformational and Deflection limit States: Excessive deflections may be
visually unacceptable and may lead to walls or partitions damage.
Prof. Dr. Fathy Saad

October 2015

Load Distribution
Cracking Limit States: Excessive cracks may lead to leakage, corrosion
of reinforcement and deterioration of concrete.
Vibration Limit States: Vertical vibration of floors or roofs may cause
unacceptable level of comfort for the users.
In case of design for serviceability limit state the adopted loads are
characteristic loads (service loads)
D + L . (3.13 a-Code).
D + L + W ... (3.13 b-Code).
D + L/1.2 + S/1.4 ... (3.13 c-Code).
Where
= Coefficient that takes into account the effect of live load that might
exists on the building during an earthquake and is taken as follows
= in residential building residential buildings.
= in public buildings and structures such as malls, schools, hospitals,
garages and theaters.
= 1 in silos, water tanks and structures loaded with sustained live loads
such as public libraries, main storage areas and garages for public cars.
If the dead loads increase the structural stability, the following loads should
be used:
0.9D . (3.14 a-Code).
[0.9D + W] or [0.9D + S/1.4] (3.14 b-Code).
If wind or earthquake loads are considered in the design for serviceability
limit state, the allowable stress could be increased.

Prof. Dr. Fathy Saad

October 2015

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Load Distribution

3.3.2 Ultimate Limit States (ULS)

These states are concerned with the failure of a structural member or the
whole structure. Such a failure should have a very low probability of
occurrence since it may lead to loss of human lives.
The load factors specified in The Egyptian Code, to be applied to calculated
dead, live and lateral loads according to the ULS, are summarized as
follows:
1. For members that are subjected to dead loads D and live loads L, while
lateral loads can be neglected, the ultimate factored loads U are
U=1.4D + 1.6L (3.1-Code).
2. If the live load 0.75 the dead loads; then,
U=1.5 (D + L ) (3.2-Code).
3. In case of earth pressure or fluid pressure (lateral pressure, E)
U=1.4D +1.6(E + L) (3.3-Code).
Provided that U is not less than the value given by equation (3.1-Code).in
case E is due to a fluid within a container with definite dimensions such
as tanks and small pools use (1.4E) instead of (1.6E).
4. If the structure is subjected to wind loads W or earthquake S, the
ultimate load U is taken as the biggest from the following two
equations:
U= 0.8 (1.4D + 1.6L + 1.6W) (3.4-Code).
U= 1.12D + L+ S .....(3.5-Code).
Provided that, U is not less than the value given by equation (3.1-code),
also wind loads and earthquake loads cant be combined.
Prof. Dr. Fathy Saad

October 2015

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Load Distribution
5. If the dead loads increase the structural stability or reduce the straining
actions the loads in 1,3 and 4 should be replaced by the following
respectively.
U= 0.9D .................... (3.6-Code).
U= 0.9D + 1.6E (3.7-Code).
U= 0.9D + 1.3W (3.8-Code).
U= 0.9D + S

(3.9-Code).

6. If the effect of temperature changes, differential settlement, creep and

shrinkage is T;
U= 0.8 (1.4D + 1.6L + 1.4T ) (3.10-Code)
U 1.4 (D + T ) .. (3.11-Code)
7. A dynamic load, K, can be replaced by an equivalent static load as
follows:
U=1.4D + 1.6L + 1.6K (3.12-Code)
With consideration paid to U given by equation (3.6-Code).

Prof. Dr. Fathy Saad

October 2015

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Load Distribution

3.4 Load Arrangement

The use of maximum and minimum load factors and the arrangement of
loads should be chosen to cause the most critical effect on the member
being designed. for example, for a beam with cantilever end, two cases of
loading must be considered, as shown below

Case of max. positive moment.

Case of max. negative moment.

Example: 1 on Absolute Internal Force on beams
For the beam shown it is required to draw the max. max (absolute) straining
action diagrams (B.M.D, S.F.D, N.F.D). Note: the given loads are the
working loads.

Solution:

Prof. Dr. Fathy Saad

October 2015

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Load Distribution

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October 2015

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October 2015

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Load Distribution

Example: 2 Absolute Internal Force on Frames

For the frame shown it is required to draw the max. max (absolute)
straining action diagrams (B.M.D, S.F.D, N.F.D). Note: the given loads are
the working loads.

Prof. Dr. Fathy Saad

October 2015

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Load Distribution

Solution:

Prof. Dr. Fathy Saad

October 2015

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Load Distribution

3.5 Examples
Example: 1on Load Distribution
For structural plan of an office building shown in Fig. it is required to
draw the load distribution on the plan and to calculate the ultimate load
for all beams shown:
Given:

all slabs 120mm thickness

L.L on slabs = 3 kN / m2

All walls weight 3 kN / m2

Story height is 3.0 m

All beams 200 x 500 mm in section

F.C = 1.5 kN/m2

The walls exists over all beams.

Note : width of B7 is 250 mm ; the wall on B6 and B3` is a balcony

wall

Prof. Dr. Fathy Saad

October 2015

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Load Distribution

Solution:

Prof. Dr. Fathy Saad

October 2015

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