Effect of Temperature Load on Flat Slab Design in Thermal Analysis

Long structures without any expansion joint has become a necessity in view of demanding architecture and present industrial trend in construction industry. Increasing demand for large commercial spaces, office buildings, IT parks, Multi-level parking structures and there serviceability aspects have put forward a situation where it has become necessary to review the provisions in Indian codes of practice. As per Indian Standard code, IS-456:2000 [1], buildings longer than 45 m shall be analyzed for the thermal stresses and appropriate measures shall be taken during fixing the structural system. However, IS codes are silent in terms of process to follow in such kind of designs as well as on load factors to be considered in design combination of temperature load with gravity loads. To worsen the situation, there are no guidelines available with design engineers to arrive at design temperature value that should be considered in working out thermal stresses. This paper mainly focuses on systematic methodology to be adopted in analysis and design of flat slab structures in presence of temperature loads.