Lapping Pattern, Stock Length, and Shop Drawing of Beam Reinforcements of an RC Building

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to develop an automation platform that particularly emphases the beam reinforcements of a continuous beam of an RC building and automatically checks all designs to ensure that the arrangements of reinforcements comply with the American Concrete Institute code. The platform can establish the types of location patterns of lap splices (called lapping patterns) for the longitudinal reinforcements; calculate the length of every reinforcement; arrange the same sized reinforcements by length in decreasing order; choose the proper stock lengths for bar cutting; and determine the best lapping pattern with optimal stock length by the trial and error method or the linear programming approach, which can yield the most economical way to supply a proper stock length for cutting. Finally, the platform can automatically generate the shop drawing and schedule the reinforcements, which may be very useful for building construction and management.