Reinforced Concrete Design II

University of Hail
Dr. Nader Okasha

Lecture 9
Design of Stairs
 Stair Types

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 Stair Types

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 Stair Types

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 Stair Types

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 Technical terms
•Going: horizontal upper portion of a step.
•Rise: vertical distance between two consecutive treads.
•Flight: a series of steps provided between two landings.
•Landing: a horizontal slab provided between two flights.
•Waist: the least thickness of a stair slab.

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 Technical terms
•Winder: radiating or angular tapering steps.
•Soffit: the bottom surface of a stair slab.
•Nosing: the intersection of the going and the riser.
•Headroom: the vertical distance from a line connecting the nosings of
all treads and the soffit above.

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 General Design Requirements

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 Stair type based on the structural loading type

Simply supported stair Simply supported stair

(transversely supported) (longitudinally supported)

9 Cantilever stair
 Design of transversely supported stairs

Loading:
a. Dead load:
The dead load includes own weight of the step, own weight of the waist
slab, and surface finishes on the steps and on the soffit.

b. Live Load:
Live load is taken as building design live load plus 1.5 kN/m2, with a
maximum value of 5 kN/m2.

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 Design of transversely supported stairs
Direction of bending

Main reinforcement

Shrinkage reinforcement

11 Direction of bending
 Design of transversely supported stairs
Design for Shear and Flexure:

Each step is designed for shear and

flexure as if it is a beam. Main
reinforcement runs in the transverse
direction at the bottom side of the t
steps while shrinkage reinforcement
runs at the bottom side of the slab in
the longitudinal direction. Since the
step is not rectangular, the effective
depth d is found by an equivalent
rectangular section that can be used
with an average height equal to: R
havg

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t
 Design of transversely supported stairs
Example 1
Design a straight flight stair in a residential building
supported on reinforced concrete walls 1.5 m apart (center
to center), given:
L.L = 3 kN/m2; covering material = 0.5 kN/m; The risers
are 16 cm and goings are 30 cm; fc’=25 MPa, fy= 420 MPa

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 Loads and Analysis
l 1.5
t   0.075m
20 20
t

0.075 0.16
have    0.165m
 0.30
0.34  2
D.L(O.W) =0.340.075  25 + (1/2)  0.16  0.3  25=1.24 kN/m
D.L (covering material) = 0.5 kN/m
0.3
D.L (total) = 1.74 kN/m 0.16 
L.L =30.3 =0.9 kN/m 0.302  0.162  0.34

1.5 m
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 Shear diagram

Moment diagram

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 Design for moment
M u  1kN .m
d  165  20  6  139mm
bw  300mm
0.85 f c '  2M u 
  1  1  
fy   0.85 f c ' b d 2 
0.85  25    2 1106 
 1  1   2 
  0.0005
 
420 
   0.9  0.85  25  300 139  
A s  0.0005  300  139  20.9mm 2
A s ,min  0.0018  300  165  89.1mm 2  A s
 A s  A s ,min  89.1mm 2
Use 112 for each step

Area of shrinkage reinforcement, As=0.0018(1000)75=135 mm2/m

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 Design for shear
 V C  0.75  0.17 25 139  300 /1000  26kN V u  2.65kN OK

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Design of longitudinally supported stairs

Direction of bending

Shrinkage reinforcement

Main reinforcement

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Design of longitudinally supported stairs

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Design of longitudinally supported stairs
Deflection Requirement:
Since a flight of stairs is stiffer than a slab of thickness equal to the waist t,
minimum required slab depth is reduced by 15 %.
Effective Span:
The effective span is taken as the horizontal distance between centerlines of
supporting elements.

n = number of goings

X = Width of
supporting landing slab
at one end of the stairs
slab

Y = Width of
supporting landing slab
at the other end of the
20 stairs slab.
Design of longitudinally supported stairs
Deflection Requirement:
Since a flight of stairs is stiffer than a slab of thickness equal to the waist t,
minimum required slab depth is reduced by 15 %.
Effective Span:
The effective span is taken as the horizontal distance between centerlines of
supporting elements.

n = number of goings

X = Width of
supporting landing slab
at one end of the stairs
slab

Y = Width of
supporting landing slab
at the other end of the
21 stairs slab.
Design of longitudinally supported stairs
Loading:
a. Dead Load:
The dead load, which can be calculated on horizontal plan, includes:
•Own weight of the steps.
•Own weight of the slab.
•Surface finishes on the flight and on the landings.
Note: For flight load calculations, the part of load acting on slope is to be increased
by dividing it by cosα. This is because analysis for moment and shear is conducted on
the horizontal span of the flight, but the load is that carried on the inclined span.
P
P= wo.w.Linc

.Linc

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w=P/L= wo.w.Linc/L= wo.w./cosα
.L
Design of longitudinally supported stairs

Loading:

b. Live Load:
Live load is taken as the building design live load plus 1.5 kN/m2, with a
maximum value of 5 kN/m2. Live load is always given on the horizontal
projection.

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Design of longitudinally supported stairs
Example 2
Design the U- stair in a residential building shown in the figure, given:
L.L = 3 kN/m2; The landings are surface finished with tiles on sand filling
that weighs 1.5 kN/m2. 2 cm thick plaster is applied to the bottom surface
of the stairs. The rises are 16 cm and goings are 30 cm, fc’=25 MPa, fy=
420 MPa.

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 Loads and Analysis
l 525
t  0.85   22cm
20 20
cos() = 0.3/ 0.34 = 0.88

Take a unit strip along the span:

1- Flight:
D.L (slab)= 0.221.025/0.88 =6 kN/m
D.L (step) = (1/2)  0.161.0  25=2 kN/m
D.L (tiles) = 1.51.0 = 1.5 kN/m
0.3
D.L (plaster)= 0.021.021/0.88 =0.48 kN/m 0.16
L.L =3 1.0=3 kN/m 0.34
Wu (flight) = 1.2(9.98)+1.6(3)=16.8 kN/m

2- Landing:
D.L (slab)= 0.221.025 =5.5 kN/m
D.L (tiles) = 1.51.0 = 1.5 kN/m
D.L (plaster)= 0.021.021 =0.42 kN/m
L.L =3 1.0=3 kN/m
25 Wu (landing) = 1.2(7.42)+1.6(3)=13.7 kN/m
 Moment and shear diagram
16.8 kN/m
13.7 kN/m 13.7 kN/m

38.9 kN

38.9 kN

51 kN.m

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 Design for moment
M u  51 kN .m
d  22  2  0.6  19.4cm  194mm
bw  1000mm

0.85  25    2  51106 
 1  1   2 
  0.0037
 
420 
  0.85  0.9   25  1000 194  
A s  0.0037 1000 194  718mm 2
A s ,min  0.0018 1000  220  396mm 2  A s OK
Use 812 /m

Area of shrinkage reinforcement, As=0.0018(1000)220=396 mm2

Design for shear

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 V C  0.75  0.17 25 194 1000 / 1000  127.3kN V u  38.25kN OK
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Design of quarter-turn stairs

A landing may be shared on two different stair slabs. The load of the shared
landing can be assumed to be divided equally and each stair slab carries one
29 half.