The effect of dimensional parameters on the behaviour of reinforced concrete slabs with continuous drop panel and determination of their rules

In this study, the effect of dimensional parameters on the static behaviours of reinforced concrete slabs with continuous drop panel was investigated. For numerical application, the slab with continuous drop panel was selected five-way in which slab span length was equal in two directions. Three dimensional storey frame approach with finite element discretization was used in analysis. In the finite element modeling, the thickened portions of the slab which was called band-beams or slab-bands were accepted as frame elements and slabs as plate elements. In total, 810 solutions were performed on the story frame by modifying some properties, namely: the concrete strength, the span length, the width of continuous band-beam, the height of continuous band-beam and the percentage of steel reinforcement. The lumped type plastic hinge model was used for the nonlinear behavior of the story frame system under the dead and live loads. The support moments, the span moments and span midpoint vertical deflections were calculated for the interior and the exterior spans. Using these results, several functions of the moment and deflection were obtained by using STATISTICA program. The results obtained using the equivalent frame method and the defined functions were compared with those of the finite element method. It was concluded that the proposed method (defined functions) solutions were more compatible with those of the finite element method according to the equivalent frame method results.