Okay welcome back To the Slab Design In Prokon Series
It’s the Prokon Geek and today we are going to be looking at The Slab Module User Interface
Hopefully you saw my introduction video were I talked about the things we are going to be covering in the slabs series and as promised we will kickstart it off with the simple things and basics first.
So to get started all you have to do launch the Rectagular Slab Design Module under the Concrete Tab in Prokon
Once you do this you will get a window giving you the user interface
Which is pretty neat and simple if you ask me
Now by default the first tab that you will have open is the INPUT TAB.
On this tab you have 4 sections
1. The geometry and materials input section
Which is where you provide Prokon with the dimensions of your slab panel and effective depth of steel that you want in either direction
You also provide the characteristic strength of your materials and design factors in the same section
Next you have
2. Slab edge fixity Input Section
Where you inform prokon wether the each of the four different edges of the slab is supported against displacement and/or free to rotate
• Displacement Means: Vertical deflection is restrained, for example by a stiff beam or load-bearing wall below.
And
• Rotation Means: Edge rotation is restrained, for example in situations where there is continuity with an adjoining span or slab built into a stiff member.
Next up you have the
3. Design Loads Input Section
Which is the section you provide one or more load cases comprising of UDLs, point loads and/or line loads, and you can optionally specify the load cases to include in the envelope
One important thing to Note is that
The program automatically calculates the slab weight using the slab thickness and the density values that you enter. The own weight is automatically added to each load case that you define
Also
You may use more than one row in the loads input table to define a particular load case; loads entered on multiple lines are aggregated.
To combine a dead load and live load in one combination, for example, enter a dead load with its ULS factor on one row and the live load with its ULS factor on the next.
If you leave the load case number column blank, the program considers the row to be part of the load case in the preceding line.
Next up you have the
4. Envelope
The design output contains two special "envelope load cases" using the load cases you specify:
• Envelope maximum: The maximum value (bending moment, reinforcement, or deflection) calculated for all design load cases at any given position on the slab.
• Envelope minimum: The corresponding minimum value calculated for all design load cases.
Envelope example: which is shown on screen as
• 1, 2, 4-6: means Include load cases 1, 2, and 4 through 6 in the envelopes. Omitting load case 3
Last but not least on this tab you have the Title Text Box where you enter the name of the file that you would want to appear on the Calculation Sheets when you print them out.
Now next without clicking on them but without delving into them as we will leave that for the interpretation videos
We have 5 more tabs asides the Input tab at the top of the screen
1. Is Moment
It displays the bending moment values in the top and bottom faces of the slab in the X and Y-directions. The bending moments are equivalent moments,
Suitable to use as design moments that account for torsion and are calculated using the Wood and Armer equations.
2. Is Deflections
The elastic short-term deflections and long term deflections calculated for each load case by the program using finite element analysis are displayed here. It uses the gross un-cracked concrete section for the stiffness calculation.Third we have
3.Reinforcement
Where the program uses the equivalent Wood and Armer bending moments to calculate the required reinforcement and displays it
Then you have
4.Calcsheets
Which just summarise the design output
Last but not least you have
5.Bending Schedule
Where you can generate a Padds drawing with rebar cutting list. And you can then use Padds or AutoPadds to edit and/or print the sketch and rebar bending schedules.
Okay that’s it for Interface tour next up we are looking at interpreting the Diagrams generated after you run an analysis and a design is calculated.
Cheers.
