DEFLECTION CHECK
• In addition to designing for bending and shear at ultimate limit state,
deflections under working loads must also be checked to ensure that it
does not adversely affect either the efficiency or appearance of the
structure.
• This is necessary to avoid efficiency and appearance of the overall
structure caused by excessive deflection of its members.
• According to the code, to ensure proper performance of beams with
rectangular cross section under load:
1. The final deflection should not exceed span/250;
2. deflection after construction of finishes and partitions should not exceed
span/500 or 20mm (whichever is the lesser) for span up to 10m
Key terminologies in deflection check
1. Effective span – This is an important parameter that should be calculated /
determined for all beam design.
i) For simply supported beams, the LESSER of the following should
be considered as the beam effective span:
a) Distance between centre of bearing, A or
b) Clear distance between supports, D plus effective depth, D of beam
ii) For continuous beam, the effective span is normally taken as the
distance between the centres of support
2. Span – to- effective depth ratio
This can be:
i) Basic span-to-effective depth – Values for this for rectangular or flanged
beams for spans less than 10 m can be obtained from design table 15
of the design charts/tables handout that is shown in the table below.
1
For spans greater than 10 m, the value obtained from the table must
be multiplied by 10/span except for cantilever beams)
3. Actual span – to – effective depth ratio – This can be determine/obtain by
dividing the given span with the given/calculated effective depth of the
beam
4. Modification factors for both tension and compression reinforcements –
These are factors that can be determined by either using empirical
formulae or from design charts. It can determine by first determining the
service stress, f s
5. Allowable / Limiting / modified span - to – effective depth – This is
determined by multiplying values of basic span-to-effective with that of
modification factors for either tension (for singly-reinforced member only)
or tension and compression (for doubly-reinforced member)
The following are steps use to check the adequacy of deflection of a loaded
beam.
1. Based on beam type, determine the basic span-to-effective ratio for
rectangular sections for span up to 10m as shown in the design code i.e.
Basic span/d ratio for rectangular or flanged beam for spans up to 10m
Support conditions Span/effective depth Flange beams with
ratio (rectangular Width of beam/width of
section) flange less than 0.3
Cantilever 7 5.6
Simply supported 20 16.0
Continuous 26 20.6
For span exceeding 10m,(except for cantilevers), the ratio has to be multiplied by
10/span
2
2. Determine value for M/bd2
3. Calculate the service stress, f s . This is calculated as:
=1.05 for BS
……………(1)
Where, b = 1 for simply support beam when moment redistribution is
maximum otherwise use the provided moment redistribution if less than the
maximum.
4. Using design tables or equation, the modification factor for tension
reinforcement can be determined. Using the equation, the modification
factor for tension reinforcement can be determined as:
mod ification factor = 0.55 +
( 477 − f s ) 2.0 …………..(2)
M
120 0.9 + 2
bd
5. Determine the allowable span/effective depth. This can be deduced as:
(
mod ified or allowables span
d ) = basic span
d
mod ification factor due to tension (3)
6. Determine the actual span-to-effective.
7. For deflection requirement to be satisfied / adequate:
span span
allowable > actual ……..(4)
d d
8. If the above condition is not satisfied, the beam cross section has to be
changed.
3
9. For doubly reinforced beam, the modification factor for compression can
be determined either by using an equation or by using design tables. The
following equation can be used
100 As' , prov
mod ification factor for compression = 1 + bd 1.5 ……………(5)
100 As' , prov
3 +
bd