Dr.

Bibhuti Bhusan Das

Associate Professor
Civil Engineering Department
National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal
Mangalore-575025
Karnataka, India
Contact Number: +91-9589200861 (M), +91-824-2473041 (O), +91-824-2473970 (Direct)
Fax: +91-824-2474033
Personal Website:
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Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025

•Formwork comprises self-supporting structures that give shape and
geometrical dimensions to the shapeless fresh concrete.

•It takes the load of wet concrete as well as other loads caused by
construction activities. Formwork plays an important role in safety,
quality, time and cost of any reinforced concrete construction.

•Good quality concrete can be produced by proper mix design, placing

and adequate compaction. We can achieve good compaction only if
formwork is properly designed and installed. Thus, formwork is the first
step in ensuring good construction practice.

Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025

Timber formwork is widely used in India. Timer used for formwork
should satisfy IS: 3629-1966.

Some of the requirements that the structural timer formwork are:

a) The modulus of elasticity of a clear specimen of timer tested in
bending should not be less than 5600 MPa.
b) Timber should be seasoned to have moisture content ranging from
12% to 20%.
c) Timber should not have defects such as knots, cracks, etc.
d) Timber should be suitable in respect of durability and treatability.
e) The size of the timber member should be designed based on
prescribed permissible stresses.
Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025
f)The thickness of timber sheeting should be such as to ensure a rigid,
plain surface without bending and denting.

•For timber, the following minimum thickness are recommended even

if design calculation indicate adequacy of a smaller value:

For walls and vertical sides of beams 25 mm

For bottom floors supporting normal loads 30 mm
For floor slabs for heavy construction loads 37 mm

•Plywood is replacing Timber in some extent for making formwork.

•A minimum thickness of 12 mm is recommended for plywood.

Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025

Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025
A major causes for failure of structures during construction is in
sufficient load-bearing capacity of the formwork.

Formwork for concreting should support all vertical and horizontal

loads.
Dead Load
•The dead load includes the weight of fresh concrete and reinforcing
steel.
•The unit weight of fresh concrete is including steel is 26 kN/m3. The
self-weight of form is a small fraction.
•Generally 8%-10% of concrete is considered as the weight of
formwork.
Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025
The following effects should be considered while estimating live loads
on formwork:
a) Dumping of concrete
b) Movement of labour
c) Construction equipment
d) Lateral forces produced by wind (important for tall buildings and in
the coastal zone)
e) Eccentricity of the concrete weight during the progress of work.

Vertical loads
Both live load and dead load contribute to vertical load. A minimum
of 2.50 kN/m2 on a horizontal plane is considered adequate for
normal construction
Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025
•An agitation (negative) pressure is caused due to vibration of fresh
concrete. As a result of vibration, concrete is maintained in a fluid
state.

•The unit weight “w” will be about 26 KN/m3 for normal concrete and
36-40 KN/m3 for the high-density concrete.

•Lateral pressure on the sides of formwork developed by wet concrete

is dependent on the following factors:
a) Density or weight of concrete
b) Workability of concrete
c) Rate of placing
d) Temperature of concrete
e) Method of consolidating the concrete
f) Dimensions of the section.
Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025
Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025
•Wind load falls into this category. In general, horizontal load, w, acting
in any direction on any floor should not be less than 150 kg/linear meter
or 2% of the total dead load.

•Bracing for wall form should be designed for a horizontal load (w) of at
least :
•150 kg/ linear meter of the wall at the floor edge
•or 2% of vertical load distributed uniformly at the slab edge
•or qh/2 (where q is the actual wind pressure)

whichever is larger

Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025

Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025
•If ready mix concrete or pumping of concrete is used, formwork
should be designed for the additional pressure that could be caused
by the method of placement.

•In some cases, transport pipes are anchored to the formwork. These
pipes will transmit very high vertical and lateral dynamic load
especially during pumping. So connecting transport pipes to
formwork should be avoided.

Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025

Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025
The formwork must be able to with stand the following loads also.

1) Shrinkage and thermal movements in the freshly placed

concrete should be assessed and accommodated in the design of
formwork.
2) Snow load should be assumed in accordance with IS: 875 9
(part4)-1987 if necessary.
3) Form design must also consider unsymmetrical placement of
concrete, uplift, and concentrated load produced by storing
supplies on the freshly placed slab.

Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025

•In order to ensure safety, quality, and economy, various system of
formwork have been developed.

Some of the considerations while selecting a formwork system are

the following:

1) Simplicity in assembling the system.

2) Flexibility, ease of use, and versatility.
3) Labour and material productivity with speed and safety
4) Suitability for most applications

Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025

PERI, Bratislava, SLOVAKIA

DOKA, Amstetten, AUSTRIA.

ALSINA, Barcelona, SPAIN

PASCHAL, Hyderabad, INDIA

MEVA, Ohio, USA

TITAN, Tempe, Arizona, USA

MIVAN, MALYASIA
Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025
•This system is flexible and can be used for various heights and spacing.

•This system is adopted for slabs and beams up to a floor height of

4.4m.

•This system enables repropping and frequent reuse of materials.

•The components used are very light and easy to erect and dismantle.

Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025

Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025
•A major advantage of beam-forming system is that it eliminates the
use of timber sides and beam bottom.

•This system is suitable for beam depths from 300 mm onwards.

•It is easy to align, fix, and remove. Such formwork systems have
adjustable depth in steps of 10 mm increment and ensure right angle
for side formwork with respect to beam bottom.

Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025

Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025
•This system, can be used up to a height of 100 m with a load-carrying
capacity of 25 tons.

•It is rigid and stable with minimum bracings. This system is easy to
handle, fix, and remove with unskilled labour.

•A tower as a whole can be shifted from one place to another using

crane or transport devices. This system has good flexibility in height
adjustment and can also be converted into stair tower with additional
standard components.

•This system is ideal for heavy floors involving considerable heights.

Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025

Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025
•The advantage of this formwork is that it minimizes the number of
sheeting and ensures excellent concrete finish.

•Large area panels are used as single units. This is an ideal system
for speedy construction (50 uses in 6 months).

•This is suitable when high-strength is used. This system is designed

to take pressures up to 35 kN for walls and up to 90 kN for columns.

Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025

Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025
•For tall structure it is very uneconomical to provide staging or
scaffolding for supporting the external wall formwork. In such a case,
the climbing formwork is used.

Types of climbing formwork system:

Simple Climbing formwork

Here the brackets and wall formwork are handled separately by a crane
or a suitable lifting device.

Climbing formwork with roll-back arrangement

This system facilities lifting of the wall formwork and climbing brackets
as one unit and allows roll back of shutters for de-shuttering, cleaning
etc. Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025
Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025
As the name suggests, this is the wall formwork along with the
working platform climbing along the wall using an electric motor/
hydraulic pump, thus eliminating the need for a crane to handle the
wall panels and brackets.

Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025

Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025
•This system is used for all structures.

•A height of 100 m can be accessed easily.

•It can be handled as a single unit with the help of a crane

Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025

Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025
•This is a lightweight and easy to erect and dismantle formwork
system.

•It provides free movement for workmen without any obstruction at

all levels.

•This system is made up to standard heights of 0.9, 1.2, or 1.8 m. a

working platform is in-built in this system.

•It has good flexibility in height adjustment.

Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025

Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025
Timber construction are generally made using nails. The
recommendations for permanent and semi-permanent nail joints for
timber construction are given in IS 2366-1983.

The diameter of nails should be within the limit of one-eleventh to one-

sixth of the least thickness of members being connected.

When timber members, e.g., posts, braces, etc., are lengthened by joint,
butt jointing with cover plate on both sides should be adopted with the
number of nails and their spacing as specified in IS: 2366-1983.

For butt joints, nails should be driven through the entire thickness of joints
including the cover plate. Nails should be so arranged that their centroid
lies on the axis of the member. Adjacent nails should be driven alternately
from either face. Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025
A formula derived by Forest Product Laboratory, Wisconsin, U.S.A,
for safe lateral load across nail jointing timber is

P= 3.2d3/2

Where P is the safe lateral load (in kg)and d is the diameter of nail (in
mm).

Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025

Plywood Formwork Bamboo/Wooden Formwork
Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025
Steel Formwork Aluminium Formwork
Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025
 Plastic Formwork

Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025

Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025
Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025
Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025
Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025
Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025
Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025
Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025
Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025
Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025
Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025
Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025
Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025
Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025
Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025
Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025
Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025
Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025
a. To obtain the required shape, size, finish, position and
alignment of concrete members.
b. To have enough load carrying, or transferring capacity
to take pressure or weight of fresh concrete and any
other loads, without distortion, deflection, leakage, failure
or danger to workmen.
c. To have design for quick erection and removal.
d. To handle easily using available equipment or manpower.
e. Joints between formwork must be tight enough to prevent
leakage of grout.

Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025

 Thank You

Dr. B. B. Das, Associate Professor, NITK Surathkal, Mangalore-575025