DURABILITY

MINUMUM CONCRETE COVER

(EXPOSURE CONDITION)

MINIMUM MEMBER
DIMENSIONS AND COVER
(FIRE RESISTANCE)

Example 6.1
Simply supported R.C beam designed with C25/30
concrete. It is estimated that the beam will have overall
thickness of 200 mm and 10 mm diameter reinforcing
bars will be used as the main reinforcement.
Check the cover requirements for durability, bond and
fire resistance if the required fire resistance is 90
minutes. Also determine the effective depth that would
be used in the design of the beam.

 Exposure Class
The beam is part of an internal structure therefore in a dry state. From Table 5.5:
Exposure Class = XC1
a) Durability
From Table 4.4N : cnom = cmin + cdev; cnom = 15+10 = 25 mm
b) Bond
The nominal cover to ensure adequate bond conditions
= bar diameter + 10 = 10 + 10 = 20 mm (<25 mm)
Fire Resistance
From Table 5.5 (EC2: Part 2): For REI 90 ; bmin = 150 mm (actual 200 mm),
a = 10 mm
Actual, based on minimum 25 mm nominal cover req for durability = nominal cover
+ bar diameter = 25 + 5 = 30 mm
Effective Depth
Effective depth = overall depth cover bar diameter = 200 25 5 = 170 mm