Reinforced Concrete Stairs

Reinforced Concrete Stairs are essential elements in buildings,

they generally composed of landings and flights; the landing is horizontal slab while the flight is an
inclined slab. The flight consists of rise and going, the height of rise is about 15-20 cm, while the width
of the going is about 25-30cm as shown in fig 5.
It is common practice to form the height of the rise at 15cm and the width of the going at 30cm.

To achieve comfort, landing has to be formed every 10-14 steps. Landing may also be needed
when a change in the direction of the stairs is required.

The width of the stair in each direction usually ranges from 90-150cm
and the space (stairwell) between each flight ranges from 30-60cm.

Structural System of Stairs:

Stairs are classified into main types as follows:

1- Cantilever Type.
2- Slab Type.
3- Slab-Beam Type.
4- Spiral Type.
5- Free-Standing Type.

The main difference among these types is the way which the flight and the landing transfer Loads to
supporting beam and columns.

Since that the flight is an inclined slab, therefore its self-weight is normally calculated in the horizontal
projection, the vertical distance t* is used in calculation of loads.

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- Cantilever Type Staircase

- Spiral Type Staircase

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- Slab Type Staircase

- Free-standing Type

The main difference among these types is the way which the flight and the landing transfer Loads to
supporting beam and columns.

Since that the flight is an inclined slab, therefore its self-weight is normally calculated in the horizontal
projection, the vertical distance t* is used in calculation of loads.

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w = γc (b t 1)
w = γc (b t 1)
w (H.P) = = γc (b t 1)

1- Cantilever Type:

In some cases there is no possibility to make any beams except the wall beams to support the stairs. In
this type, the flights and the landings act as cantilever slab supported on beam or wall as shown in Fig.6

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2- Slab Type:

In this type, The Main Supporting element is the slab itself. The Flight can be supported on the landing
or vice versa (Fig.7). From the structural point of view it is better that the main supporting element is in
the short direction. However, this depends on the surrounding beams. If beams surround the stair or at
least exist along the long sides, then solution A will be the more economic. Otherwise, if the supporting
beams exist only at the short side, then solution B is the only valid structural system.

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The applied live loads is based on the sloped length; to transform the dead load into horizontal
projection the average vertical thickness used is tavg (tavg= t* + rise/2). However, the effective depth in
design is perpendicular to the slope as shown

The uniform load acting on the stairs is the summation of the stair and slab weight (using t avg) +
covering material + Live Loads.
Since the landing and the stairs are not straight, internal forces are generated in these sloped elements.
The two tensile forces T1 and T2 at the turn, producing a third outward force F as shown in Fig.8. If he
produced stress exceed concrete tensile stress this force tends to cause splitting cracks.
Thus, Tension Reinforcement should be extended from each side so that no outward force is generated.

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