Comparison of Provisions for Nonslender Reinforced Concrete Columns: American Concrete Institution, Eurocode, Indian Standard, and Canadian Standards Association

Abstract

The basis for the design of any concrete structural element is the concrete building code. Since the requirements for different used codes are dissimilar, a detailed comparative analysis needs to be conducted to compare multiple structural design aspects of various codes used worldwide and find out if there is any significant differences in the design procedures. The main objective of this study is to compare 4 building codes: ACI Standard: Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete; the European Standard: Eurocode 2: Design of concrete structures—Part 1-1: General Rules and Rules for Buildings; the Indian Standard: Plain and Reinforced Concrete—Code of Practice; and the Canadian Standard: CSA A23.3-19 Design of Concrete Structures to draw conclusions on the differences in the design requirements for general characteristics, flexure, and provisions for nonslender columns. The same column cross section was used to calculate axial capacities based on all four codes and the results were presented in a comparative table. All the codes have some differences in the provisions compared. In general, regarding column axial capacities, it was seen that estimates provided by the Indian code were more conservative compared to the remaining three codes.