Cost Optimum Design of Reinforced Concrete Simply Supported One-Way Slabs

The paper presents the cost optimization of reinforced concrete simply supported one-way slabs under uniformly distributed load with the nonlinear programming approach. A detailed objective function of the slab's manufacturing costs was given including the material costs of the concrete, reinforcement and formwork panels as well as the labour cost items. The slabs were designed in accordance with the European Building Code. A multi-parametric cost optimization was carried out for variable spans from 5 to 8m and variable uniformly distributed imposed load of 2 and 5kN/m². Additionally, at the serviceability limit state, two different deflection limitation designs have been performed. In the first the slenderness ratio of the slabs was limited while in the second the slabs deflection was controlled. The comparison of the results shows that the slenderness controlled design results in a considerable lower slab's depth and consequently a lower manufacturing cost.