Slab Deflection
Posted on 15th March 2019 at 10:52
Explanation of floor slab deflection and dimension srequired to 'manage'
This post was inspired by a facade designer at a customer asking what another engineer meant by:
‘the slab above deflects 10mm more than the one under consideration the gap between the slabs reduces by 10mm. If the slab under consideration deflects 10mm more than the slab above, the gap between increases by 10mm. Thus a potential 10mm differential equates to a ±10mm in gap between floors.’
It had confused him and came to me to ask for help understanding. It reminded me of when I was younger and 1st starting out in my life as a Structural Engineer when my Mentor / Lead Engineer said to me, "Steve, you can be as clever as Einstein, but if you can't explain it to some one else, it doesn't matter. Being a good Engineer is being able to explain it someone else, not just being good at maths!" It's something I try to do every day and to instill in all our members of staff. I can't guarantee that we succeed every time, but we do try.
I'm hoping that this sketch below serves to help other's with the same question.
Please comment below if it's helped you!
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