Design of top concrete slabs of composite space trusses

The design of composite space trusses is a demanding task that involves taking several decisions on the truss depth, number of panels, member configuration, number of chord layers and concrete slab thickness and grade. The focus in this paper is on the design of top concrete slabs of composite space trusses, and in particular their thickness. Several effects must be considered in the process of designing the slab before an optimum thickness can be chosen. These effects include the inplane forces arising from shear interaction with the steel sub-truss and the flexural. and sheer effects of direct lateral slab loading. They also include a constructional consideration that the thickness must allow for sufficient cover and adequate space for placing the reinforcement. The work presented in this paper shows that the structural requirements on the concrete slab thickness are in many cases insignificant compared with the constructional requirements.