Optimisation of Supports’ Position for a Reinforced Concrete Slab of Arbitrary Geometry

Abstract

Introduction. A number of research held in recent years on rational design of buildings and structures built for different purposes study the rational position of the vertical members — columns or supports. However, the majority of up-to-date research and publications focus on elucidating the rational position of the supports in the context of improving the efficiency of the beams. Whereas the behaviour of the reinforced concrete slabs affected by changing the position of the supports is not covered well enough in the modern research. The present study is targeted exactly at revealing the behaviour of the reinforced concrete slab structures of a building in case of varying position of the main supports.Materials and methods. During the present numerical experiment, a reinforced concrete slab of arbitrary geometry with the given thickness h, the concrete grade with the respective properties and the reinforcement possessing the properties according to its class, has been investigated. Additionally, it was decided to set the distance magnitudes from the centers of gravity of the upper and lower row of reinforcement to the bottom and top surface of the slab 𝑎𝑥, 𝑎′𝑥, 𝑎𝑦, 𝑎′𝑦. The number of columns n was set for the slab. It was considered that the number of columns was known, but their position could change. Moreover, among the total number of columns, there were distinguished the certain ones having the definite (constant) position, whereas the remaining supports could change their position within the slab area. Bearing in mind the above, the researchers were to solve the problem of rational position of the moveable columns.Results. This paper presents the results of the numerical experiment on identifying the most optimal (rational) position of the reinforced concrete columns supporting a slab of the arbitrary geometry. Based on the several parameters at once, such as deflection, potential strain energy and consumption of the reinforcement products, the analysis of the rational position of the supports under the slab was made and functional dependences on changing the above mentioned parameters have been presented in the work.Discussion and conclusion. Based on the results obtained in the numerical experiment, the analysis of the behaviour of the reinforced concrete slabs of a set thickness upon changing the position of the supports under the slab was made and the changes of the slab operational parameters were analysed and compiled into the functional dependences.