Earthquake Design/Management Systems

12) earthquake design/management systems
The two-earthquake design/management systems that would be implemented into the structure
are;
Lateral load/force resisting system
This design system is usually implemented into structures to resist the loads that are resulting
from seismic (earth quake) or wind activities (Guven, Gursans, and Esin 2011).
In this loading resisting system, it has to be of a closed loop, which will enable the transfer of all
the forces acting either horizontally or vertically to the ground, some of the two systems under
this category are;
1. Bearing wall system
2. Dual system
Bearing wall system
The load bearing wall system refers to the wall which carries the load of the floors and roof
above it in addition to its own weight, Usually the traditionally constructed masonry bearing
walls were thickened depending on the proposition of the force it has to resist, the dead load
of roof and floor above it, its own weight , the live of load of people as well as the lateral
forces of the vaults, seismic and the arches. This system consists of the walls which are
generally thicker to the base, this is because of the huge of the load that will be accumulated at
the base (Calvi, Gian Michele and L’Aquila 2017).
Dual system

Dual system refers to the structural system in which a critically complete frame offers support
for the gravity loads and to the lateral loads which are mainly provided a specially detailed
moment-resisting shear and frame walls or the braced walls. In this system both the frame walls
and the shear walls take part in resisting the lateral and vertical loads.
For the given structure the bearing wall system will be the most appropriate system to resist the
earthquakes loads since the system is design in a way to transfer both the vertical and lateral
loads resulting from wind and seismic activities to the ground (Gay, Leon and Sinha 2013).
14) How the structure will have been different with use of timber flat plate system instead
of glulam beam system
The use of the timber flat plate system the structure would have been different in that;
i) services
With the usage of the flat plate system, all the large and the bulky sized beams would have been
done away with and the service lines were to be easily taken through the slab through keeping
appropriate and the needed sizes of openings in slab, where the services lines were to be easily
routed through.
ii) floor to floor height
By the use of the flat plat system, the depth of the beams is usually very high, which contributes
to the floor height and hence increasing the overall floor to floor height.
iii) Material usage
In the timber flat plate system there is no need for formwork or shuttering which in most cases
contributes to a major increase in the overall cost of the reinforced concrete application of

timber flat plate system would have reduced the overall amount of the materials that were
required since it will not the materials for the formwork (Harding, John and Harri 2013).
iv) Column placement
The usage of timber flat plate system will facilitate the placement of the columns wide apart
since the span ‘L’ of a reinforced concrete flat-plate is roughly D x 28 for simply supported,
D x 30 for an end span of a continuous system, to D x 32 for internal continuous spans
15) geotechnical tests conducted prior to the design and construction of the structure and
footings
The geotechnical tests that are carries out prior to design of the foundation and footing design
are very essential in making a reasonable recommendation for the size, type, capacity and length
of the footing that will be required for the structure. Some of the geotechnical tests that were to
be carried out include.
i) Direct shear test
This test is usually carried out to estimate effective friction angle of cohesionless. Nevertheless,
there are correlations which are created to assess friction angle of cohesionless soil. The shear
strength of soil be defined as the resistance of the soil to the shearing stresses and a consequent
tendency for the shear deformation. Generally, soil derives its shear strength from;
 adhesion between soil particle or the cohesion
 Frictional resistance between the individual soil grains
 Resistance due to the interlocking of the soil particles.