What is the distance referred to by the "clear cover"?

Isljam Purisic
Isljam Purisic Altair Community Member
edited August 2023 in Community Q&A

Good Morning,

We are using S-concrete version 2022.1. We input a value for "clear cover", but we are unsure if the "clear cover" refers to the distance to the center of the longitudinal rebar (c2 as shown in the attachment) or the distance to the exterior face of the stirrup surrounding the rebar (c1 as shown in the attachment). Can you clarify this variable for us? Thank you!

 

Best Regards,

Isljam Purisic

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Answers

  • Andres Chavez
    Andres Chavez New Altair Community Member
    edited August 2023

    Hello Isljam,

     

    Thanks for posting in the Altair Community forums. My name is Andrés and I work at Altair’s Technical Support. I will be happy to answer your question.

    We appreciate the elaboration and sending the screenshot along to aid in understanding the question. In this case, the clear cover in S-CONCRETE would be referring to c1 in your schematic, meaning the distance between the exterior of the stirrup and the top, bottom, or side of the section. To prove this, we can grab a default T beam, like the one on your screenshot, and set all the clear cover distances in the top, bottom, and sides to 0. By doing this, we will see that the exterior of the stirrup will be perfectly in line with the cross-section of the beam. Please refer to the image attached below (Clear cover and cross-section.png).

    The definition of ‘clear cover’ is explained in more detail in S-CONCRETE’s Internal Help System. You will also find a dedicated paragraph to it for every section type. Please refer to the images attached below (Clear cover for beams, columns, and walls).

    We hope this information helps clear things up. Feel free to ask any additional questions if necessary, the team is here to help.

     

     

    Kind regards,

     

    Andrés Chávez Burgos

    AEC Solutions Engineer

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