Abstract:
Reinforced brick (RB slabs) are commonly used for residential and other buildings in the
areas where bricks are available at a lower cost as compared to stone aggregates. The
method of design for such slabs is not fully developed and usually it is based on
approximate guidelines given in certain hand books or only on the experience on the
builders. Various methods have been proposed for the design of RB slabs. First
specimens are made and are tested in the laboratory for the flexural strength. Comparison
is then made between the expected strength according to the proposed design methods
and the experimental results. Conclusions are drawn and recommendations regarding the
design are presented. The most important finding is that the steel required for the RB
slabs maybe calculated by using the formulae for RCC slabs, provided that the bottom
steel from the two slab panels at continuous edges is fully overlapped. The already
present bottom steel acts as compression reinforcement, at the continuous edges, maybe
designed using the doubly reinforced RCC formulae and the effective bottom concrete
width after adding one tenth width occupied by bricks.
