RAM Concept Help

Changing from PT to RC design

It is quite common for a floor to have a mixture of PT and RC areas. For example, a pour strip (an area with no post-tensioning that joins two post-tensioned slabs).

For most codes, PT design rules are different from those for RC. As such, you should use multiple design strip segments in one span.

The following figure shows two examples of a slab with tendons stopping either side of a pour strip (in gray).

On the left, span segment 2-1 has been generated and extends from support to support. This means that the entire segment is designed according to the "Consider as Post-Tensioned" option. If the option is checked, then the pour strip design is wrong.

On the right, span segments 1-1, 1-2(2) and 1-1 (3) have been drawn manually. The "Consider End x as Support" options have been unchecked, and support widths set to zero, where end "x" is at the pour strip.

The "Consider as Post-Tensioned" option is checked for 1-1 and 1-1(3), but not 1-1(2). The pour strip is thus designed as reinforced, not post-tensioned, concrete. RAM Concept designs the PT span segments for service stress rules and checks initial stresses, but not the RC areas.

Multiple span segments used to model an RC pour strip.

Note: You could define the pour strip to have orthotropic behavior such that it is very flexible in the Y direction. This is done in the Mesh Input Layer. See "Slab area properties" of Chapter 17, "Defining the Structure".