Institutional development · Research, innovation and assessment · United Kingdom
Surrey-led study proposes easier check on concrete slabs when a support column fails
Research led by the University of Surrey and published in Structural Concrete gives engineers a less complex way to gauge how reinforced concrete slabs react to the sudden loss of a column.
Why it matters: Engineers designing slab-and-column buildings such as car parks and office blocks are the group the Surrey-led technique is meant to help.
According to the University of Surrey, a study it led, which appeared in the journal Structural Concrete, proposes an easier technique for judging the behaviour of reinforced concrete slabs if a supporting column abruptly gives way.
The university said the technique could help engineers produce designs that cope better with unforeseen damage and so lower the risk of progressive collapse, in which losing one support sets off a cascade of failures.
The university noted that floors made of slabs resting directly on columns, used in car parks, offices and new housing, can be prone to 'punching shear', where the column breaks through the slab it carries.
The team drew on the 2020 failure of the Nueva Montaña car park in Santander, Spain, as a real-world example.
Editor’s view
Scott James, Research and Innovation Editor
Engineers who assess flat-slab structures are those directly addressed: if they adopt the Surrey-led technique, they would gain a simpler route to checking how floors cope when a column fails without warning.
