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BOEF.xls

Any chance there is an unlocked version of this sheet available. I need to change the units from ft to inches and from kips to lbs.

Its only a low level security in place to prevent accidental editing. Use Excel's main Menu Tools>Protection>Unprotect worksheet. No passwords are required.

Great spreadsheet.
One comment. Are the units for the Minimum thicknesses supposed to be in inches instead of feet? The minimum thicknesses would be ridiculously large if it was in feet.

No, the units of feet (not inches) for the minimum thicknesses that are determined off of the calculation page to the right are correct. What these seemingly overly large values reflect are what thickness it takes for the beam/footing to actually be considered "theoretically rigid". Engineers frequently assume rigidity in their calculations, but what this spreadsheet will do is help you determine just how rigid or how flexible your beam/footing really is.

Assuming a rigid beam/footing will usually over estimate the flexure (bending), so your rigid assumption for flexure is most always conservative as long as you don't over estimate the effective strip width. Where you can get into trouble is by assuming a rigid condition and if what you have is actually quite flexible, the maximum soil bearing pressure will be under estimated. For a very rigid beam/footing the bearing pressure diagram will be linear, while for a very flexible beam/footing the bearing pressure diagram will be "bulbed" directly under applied concentrated (point) loads. Keep in mind the scaling constraints of the MS-Excel plot for bearing pressure, when examining plots that should be a relatively straight line for a rigid condition.

Alex

Thanks for the great explanation. Another question, if I am designing a slab on grade, should I input a width equal to the calculated estimated slab width on the right side of the screen? I'm assuming this is the effective width for supporting point loads.