CEE — Senior Year · 4th Year · 1 Credit

Reinforced Concrete
Design Lab

Learn to model, analyze, and design real RC structures using industry-standard ETABS software. Buildings, bridges, seismic loads — all grounded in BNBC, ACI, and AASHTO codes.

CEE335L ETABS BNBC ACI AASHTO Prereq: CEE335 Instructor: THK
11 Class Days
3 Design Codes
2 Structure Types
1 Software: ETABS
01 — Why this lab

Why does structural software matter?

Hand calculations get you through exams. Software gets you through real projects. Click each load type below to see what it actually does to a building.

Civil View

The gap between textbooks and sites

Real buildings have irregular geometry, multiple load combinations, and 3D effects that make hand calculations impractical. ETABS handles all of this in minutes — engineers run dozens of load combos before choosing a design.

Physics View

Forces come from many directions

Gravity pulls down (dead + live loads). Wind pushes sideways. Earthquakes shake the base. A structure must resist all of these — simultaneously — without yielding, buckling, or excessive drift. Visualize these below.

Math View

Linear superposition in action

ETABS applies the principle \(U = 1.2D + 1.6L + 0.5W\) (and many other combos per ACI/BNBC). The factored load envelope governs design at every section of every member simultaneously.

Core Idea

One model, infinite combinations

You build the geometry once. Then ETABS applies every load combination the code requires and finds the worst case at every point. That's impossible by hand for a real building — and exactly why this lab exists.

LOAD TYPE →
Dead Load (D): Permanent gravity loads — self-weight of beams, columns, slabs, finishes, and partitions. These never move. In ETABS, you assign the unit weight of concrete (24 kN/m³) and the software auto-calculates this. BNBC & ACI both require D to be included in every load combination.
02 — The Software

How ETABS thinks

ETABS isn't magic — it follows a strict workflow. Click each stage to understand what's actually happening under the hood.

STEP 1
Geometry
Grids & Materials
STEP 2
Members
Beams, Columns, Slabs
STEP 3
Supports
Boundary Conditions
STEP 4
Loads
D, L, W, E
STEP 5
Analyze
Run & Solve
STEP 6
Results
Reactions, Forces

STEP 1 — GEOMETRY DEFINITION

03 — Design Codes

BNBC · ACI · AASHTO — what each one governs

Three different codes. Three different jobs. Knowing when to use which is half the battle in practice.

BNBC
ACI 318
AASHTO
04 — Course Journey

All 11 class days — what you'll build

Click any day to expand what's covered. Days 6 and 11 are exams.

05 — Grading

How you're assessed

Everything is ETABS-based — quizzes test if you're following, exams test if you can actually run analysis. Hover each segment for details.

Ready to start?

Day 1 begins with the ETABS environment — setting up materials, defining sections, and running your first model.

Begin Day 1 → ← Back to Civil