1/8/2016

HowtoDesignaTransferFloor

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WhatistheLoadingonaTransferFloor?

Design of reinforced concrete transfer floors, although routinely performed by structural design engineers, is a very
challengingtask.Thetransferfloorsarecommonlyusedinmultistoreybuildings,andtheyaremajorstructuralelements
carryinganumberoffloors.Normallytheentirebuilding,10to15levels,iscarriedbyatransferslabs.

Themajorproblemistheevaluationoftheloadingonthetransferslab,especiallythecolumnsandwallsterminatinga
thetransferlevel.Whenacolumnterminatesonatransferbeam,itwillcarryasmallerloadsincethebeamsupporting
thecolumnisactingasanelasticspring.Thesmallerthebeamdepth,thesmallertheaxialloadinthetransfer
Inthiscasetheloadisdistributedtoothercolumnswhicharecontinuoustothefootinglevel.Inanextremecaseifwe
removethesupportbelowthetransfercolumn,theaxialloadwillbereducedtozero,i.e.thecolumnwillbe"hanging"on
thefloorsabovetakingnoload.

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The other challenge is considering the method of construction. In any3Dframestaticanalysis we assume that the entire load is
applied on the complete structure simultaneously. While in reality the load is gradually applied on several floors as they are
constructed.Forinstance,ifweimaginethattheentirestructureisproppedandallthepropsareremovedaftertheconcreteisfully
set, the static analysis will capture the structural behavior adequately.But if the props at each floor are removed before the floor
aboveisconstructed,thestaticanalysiswillnotprovideaccurateresults.
Ontheotherhand,byusingtheTributaryAreamethodweassumethattheentireloadisappliedonthetransferslab,ignoringthe
structurefromabove.Thisapproachwillproducethelargestpossibleloadingatthetransfercolumn,attheexpenseofloadingto
thecontinuouscolumns.Thisapproachisconsideredmoreconservative,howeverwemaysaythatitismoreconservativeforthe
midspans,atthetransfercolumnsitwillunderestimatetheloadingatanotherlocationsuchascontinuouscolumns,sincethetotal
loadonthefloormustremainthesame.
Basically the modeling approach or design assumptions will influence the evaluation of the loading on the transfer slab, and
ultimatelyitwillinfluencetheentiredesignofthestructuralsystem.
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Neitherofthesetwoapproachescanbeconsideredsuperiorormoreprecise,normoreorlessconservative.Instead,wesuggestthataverygoodunderstandingofthe
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HowtoDesignaTransferFloor

influenceofthemodelingassumptionsandallinputparametersonthefinalresultsisessentialinordertoanalyzeanddesignatransferslab.

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Strategy1:EvaluationoftheTransferFloorLoadingbyTributaryAreaMethod

Traditionally we may evaluate the loading on the transfer floor by Tributary Area approach, ignoring the flexibility of the transfer slabs, and its influence on the
distribution.Also,thetransferslabsmaybeanalyzedindependently,separatedfromtherestofthestructureandignoringtheflexibilityofthesupportingcolumnsandthei
influenceonthebendingmomentinthetransferbeamsandslab.

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Thisapproachwillprovidenovariationinthepointloadsonthetransferslab.Inthefigureabove(Fig.2)thetwopointloadsatthemiddleareidentical,regardlessofthe
supportingconditionsbelow.

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Thisapproachiscommonlyusedanditisconsideredmoreconservative.Itsshortcomingisthattheloaddistributionisuniform,
ignoringtheinfluenceofthestructureitself.Thepointloadsonthetransferslabareinternalforcesinthecolumnsaboveand
their magnitude is affected by relative stiffness all structural elements. However, treating the transfer slab independently and
ignoringtherestofthestructureisamoreconservativeanalyticalapproach.
We will follow through a numerical example to illustrate the majorpoints.If we used R/C BUILDING software and if we set all
columnsonthetransferslabtohavea"footing"support,wecanobtainthesameresultsasthetributaryareamethod.(Fig3)

Strategy2:EvaluationofTransferLoadingby3DFrameStaticAnalysis

We can analyze the structure using 1st order

static analysis in 3D using R/C BUILDING
software, or any other frame analysis software.
(Fig.1) The point loads on the transfer slab will
be different form Tributary Area Method. In this
case the reaction in the transfer column (point
loadonthetransferslab)isreducedsignificantly,
and the loading is distributed onto the
surrounding columns. (Fig 4)This is due to the
factthatthetransfercolumnissupportedbyabeam,whichonlyprovidesanelasticsupport.Inthisexampleweuseda400mm
deepbeam.Ifthebeamdepthisreducedtosay300mmor200mmthetransfercolumnreactionwillbeevensmaller.However,thetotalloadwillremainthesame,buti
willbedistributeddifferently.
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ThebendingmomentresultsinthetransferbeamareshowninFig.5.Wecanobservethatthesmallerpointloadof348kNwillgeneraterelativelysmallbendingmoments
inthebeam.

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Strategy3:"VeryStiff"TransferSlab
Wecanmakethetransferslabandthebeams"verystiff"byassigningadifferentmaterialproperty,say
100timesgreatermodulusofelasticity.Thiswillmakethetransferfloormuchstifferincomparisontothe
restofthestructureanditwill"enforce"anevendistributionofthecolumnreactions.(Fig.6)
Theintroductionofa"VeryStiff"beamwillhaveasimilareffectonthe reactions as the Tributary Area
method. However this will also have an effect on the bending moments in the beam. (Fig 7). The
momentmagnitudewillincrease,andmoreimportantlywemayobservethatthenegativemomentatthe
columnontherightis"lost".Thisisduetotheelasticshortening(squashing)ofthecolumnsbelow,the
columnssupportingthetransferslabs.

Strategy4:"VeryStiff"TransferBeamandPreventedAxialShorteningofColumnsBelow

Inadditiontothe"VeryStiff"beamwecanintroduceanincreasedaxialstiffnessofallcolumns,whichincludesthecolumnsbelowthe
transferslab.InR/CBUILDINGsoftwarethereisaglobalswitchthatwillincreasetheaxialstiffnessofallcolumnsby100or10,000times.Inthisexamplewewillincrease
theaxialstiffnessofthecolumnsby10,000times.Itisimportanttonotethatwedonotincreasethecolumnsbendingstiffness,sothecolumnbelowwillnotinfluencethe
bendingofthetransferbeam.
Inthiscasethereactions(columnloads)willstillbeidentical(Fig.8)
In this case the bending moments will have the expected shape (Fig. 9). But the moment
magnitude has increased in comparison to the Elastic Analysis with no increased stiffness,
Strategy 2. This is expected since the load is larger and the transfer beam has increased
stiffness, and therefore attracts larger internal forces. We may say in this case the beam
momentsare"moreconservative".
Now we can say that we have "forced" the column reactions on the transfer slabs to be
uniform, i.e. to mimic the Tributary Area method, and we have increased the bending
momentsinthetransferbeam,asitisworkingbyitself,i.e.asitisanalyzedasatwospan
continuousbeamignoringtherestofthestructure.

Theincreasedaxialstiffnessofthecolumnswillaffectthelateralstabilityanalysis.Itwillprovideunrealisticallysmallerlateraldeflections.Whentheaxialstiffnessofthe
columnsisincreased,themodelcannotbeusedinlateralstabilityassessment.

EndNotesandRecommendations

The above example illustrates how we can "force" a structural model to behave in a certain manner by assigning increased stiffness to selected element groups.
increaseofthebendingstiffnessofthetransferbeam/slabby100times,andtheaxialstiffnessofthecolumnby10,000showsthatwecanobtainsimilarresultsasthe
handcalculations,usingTributaryAreamethodsandasimpletwospanbeam.
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HowtoDesignaTransferFloor

We must note that this drastic increase of the stiffness of selected element groups "distorts" the structural model, and might result in an unrealistic and unpredictable
distributionontheinternalforces,andhastobeusedverycautiously.Oursuggestionistousemiddleground.Thiscanbeachievedbyassigningasmallincreaseofthe
transferbeam/slabsbendingstiffnessbyusingafactorof4forthemodulusofelasticity,andnoaxialstiffnessincreaseofthecolumns.Theresultsareshownin
below.

Thisapproachdistributesthecolumnloadsonthetransferfloormoreevenly,butnotidenticalasintheTributaryAreaMethod.Themidspanbeammoment(belowthe
transfercolumn)isalsokeptrelativelylarge.Thisapproachwillprobablyyieldsaferbuteconomicaldesignsofthetransferfloors.

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