Comparative Study of Reinforced Concrete Design of Short Columns between BS 8110 and ACI 318-11 (Codes)

Abstract

In several countries around the world and Libya on of them the absence of a national design code, these leads structural engineers to use BS 8110, ACI 318 and quite a number of other structural design codes for the design of reinforced concrete structures. The principles and design approaches of these codes differ from one another. Also, some codes are more economical than others. This study compared BS 8110-97 and ACI 318M-11 in terms of the analysis and design of short column with particular emphasis on the area of longitudinal reinforcements required, with the aim of determining which of the two codes provides the most economic design. The super-structure of a seven-story reinforced concrete service building was modeled, analyzed and design using Auto Desk Robot Structural Analysis (2015) program taking into account dead, live and seismic loads. The percentage difference between the areas of steel required by the two codes was calculated with the ACI code as the base line. The average percentage difference for all columns was found to be about 21.5% indicating that the BS 8110 code requires less amount of reinforcement.