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Anicka
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Join Date: Oct 2012
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Translate Floor Bearing Capacity from Pounds to kg

10/03/2012 6:43 AM

Dear all,

Our american facility has 4000lbs/ft2 floor bearing capacity. We need to translate that into kg/m2 for the sake of looking into similar requirements for our proposed European facility. Can anyone help? the below calculations result in 20metric tons per square meter, but it seems intuitively too high - we just have an 8 inch thick concrete floor and we work with normal loaded forklifts in production/assembly environment, so it seems too much.

1814 kg / .0929 m2 = 4000 lbs / 1 ft2

.0929 m2 * 10.775 = 1.000 m2

1814 kg * 10.775 = 19,545 kg

Thank you anyone who can help!

Anna
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Pathfinder Tags: convertion from lbs to kg floor bearing capacity sqft to metric conversion
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#1

Re: translate floor bearing capacity from pounds to kg

10/03/2012 6:57 AM

Your calculations are correct (see converter, here). I can't comment on the engineering aspects.

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JNB
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Re: translate floor bearing capacity from pounds to kg

10/03/2012 7:07 AM

Your math is correct. As an intuitive correlation, if you change it to tons per square yard (4,000 lbs/ft2= 2 tons/ft2, x9= 18 tons/yard2). 18 tons/yard2 approximates 19.545 tonnes/m2.

My question is where did you get your 4,000 lb bearing capacity? This equates to 27.78 PSI. Is the 4,000 lb point load capacity (so you can easily & safely run normal 5,000 lb capacity, approx 14,000 lb loaded weight forklifts over an 8" reinforced concrete slab, I do know that less than 6" can be asking for trouble in this sort of situation), or is it the actual design spec? I'm not a structural engineer but there are plenty on here that will probably soon weigh in to confirm this.
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CaptMoosie
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#3

Re: Translate Floor Bearing Capacity from Pounds to kg

10/03/2012 9:23 AM

A lot is riding (no pun intended) on several factors regarding the structural adequacy of the 8-inch think slab on grade:

1. Actual full load capacity of the forklift and load distribution to the wheels.

2. Tire footprint contact area.

3. Center-to-center distance of the tires on the most loaded axle.

4. The slab's concrete compressive strength.

5. The steel reinforcement size, spacing, steel yield strength, and placement.

6. The details of how the slab construction and crack control joints are handled.

7. The design slab subbase (for engineered gravel foundation) and subgrade (insitu soils below the subbase gravel) modulus of reaction plays a very important part of how the slab carries a load.

Your calculations are correct, as everyone before me has stated. 20 Metric Tonnes per square meter is no out of the realm of reality for a 8-inch concrete slab on grade in an industrial setting. In fact I've seen higher specifications....

You need to seriously sit down and talk to the Structural Engineer who is designing this proposed Euro facility and talk turkey....

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Anicka
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#4
In reply to #3

Re: Translate Floor Bearing Capacity from Pounds to kg

10/03/2012 10:57 AM

thank you! :)
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CaptMoosie
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#5
In reply to #4

Re: Translate Floor Bearing Capacity from Pounds to kg

10/03/2012 11:21 AM

You're very welcome Anicka.

Good luck with that floor slab!!!

Let us know how you make out with it, okay? Feedback is always welcomed!

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