Factors to Consider When Determining the Suitability of a Building Structure

This paper discusses the factors to consider when determining the suitability of a building structure. It also analyzes two existing buildings and determines if the factors have been accounted for. The structural components of the selected buildings are also analyzed.

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Construction Management
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Professor’s Name
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Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Factors to consider when determining the suitability of a building structure............................3
Strength......................................................................................................................................3
Loads......................................................................................................................................3
Dead loads...........................................................................................................................3
Live loads............................................................................................................................4
Wind loads..........................................................................................................................4
Snow loads..........................................................................................................................5
Shrinkage loads...................................................................................................................5
Thermal loads.....................................................................................................................6
Dynamic loads....................................................................................................................6
Seismic loads......................................................................................................................7
Nature of loads.......................................................................................................................7
Stability......................................................................................................................................8
Structural Forces.....................................................................................................................8
Stress and strain......................................................................................................................8
Serviceability..............................................................................................................................9
Materials.................................................................................................................................9
Weather and environmental conditions..................................................................................9
Substructure............................................................................................................................9
Building function and use.....................................................................................................10
Building examples....................................................................................................................10
Sydney Opera House............................................................................................................10
Eureka Tower.......................................................................................................................11
Structural components of the selected building.......................................................................11
Conclusion................................................................................................................................13
Bibliography.............................................................................................................................13

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Introduction
Building structures are important elements in any building as it gives the building its
intended shape, exterior, and interior views, as well as the elevations. In any building, any of
the following structural members are common1; beams, columns, roof trusses, walls, slabs,
retaining walls, and wind bracing. In this paper, several of these factors will be discussed in
details with relevant examples of existing buildings. In addition, the paper will access two
existing buildings and determine if the factors have been accounted for. Finally, the paper
will analyze in details two structural members from each of the buildings in relation to the
factors.
Factors to consider when determining the suitability of a building structure
There are three main factors that determine the suitability of a building structure; strength,
stability, and serviceability.
Strength
The strength of a building structure is a factor of various parameters that include loadings and
forces that the structure has to adapt to.
Loads
In any building, low rise or high rise, at the design stage, Structural Engineers and
Architects come together to discuss the type of loading that is expected in their building2. The
loading codes are available in the Australian Standards AS/NZS 1170. There are two main
classifications of loads that exist in a building; primary loads and secondary loads3.
Dead loads result from the permanent components of the building structure such as a
concrete beam or slab.
1 Galambos, Theodore V. Structural members and frames. Courier Dover Publications, 2016.
2 Meacham, Brian J. "Sustainability and resiliency objectives in performance building
regulations." Building Research & Information 44. 2016
3 Gupta, Ajaya Kumar. Response spectrum method in seismic analysis and design of
structures. Routledge, 2017.

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Figure 1: A Dead load of a beam (buildright.com)
Live loads result from people or furniture in a building that are in a continuous
random motion.
Figure 2: live loads from human and furniture (buildright.com)
Wind loads result from the wind blowing over the structure of a building. The wind
develops vortex that may result in pressure build up in some sections of the buildings. The
wind pressure is high at the windward side of the building and low at the leeward side and
thus the building structure should be designed putting into account the loading that will be
generated.

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Figure 3: Wind effects on a house (buildright.com)
Secondary loads are loads that are beyond human control and they include snow
loads, shrinkage loads, thermal loads, dynamic loads, and seismic loads4. The building
structure should be designed so as to withstand these loads that have no alert and may occur
at any given time.
Snow loads
In snow falling regions such as Australia, the shape of the roof should be designed
with steeping pitch so as to minimize the snow loads.
Figure 4: Snow loads (buildright.com)
Shrinkage loads may occur in a building structural member as a result of material
properties such as expansion and contraction and thus the structural member should be
designed to accommodate the shrinkage.
4 Hibbeler, Russell C., and Tan Kiang. Structural analysis. Pearson Prentice Hall, 2015.

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Figure 5: Shrinkage loads (buildright.com)
Thermal loads result from temperature changes around the structural member. The
thermal expansion of a structural member is a material factor and thus it is important for
Structural engineers to design expansion joints to allow for the thermal loads.
Figure 6: Thermal loads (buildright.com)
Dynamic loads normally result from obstruction of parts of structural members in a
building structure5. For instance, the wind blowing over a flue stack may develop some
dynamic loads that are transferred to the building structure or an impact such as vehicle
collisions to the building structure.
5 Ryu, C. H., Choi, B. H., & Jang, H. S. (2018). A Study on the Numerical Analysis Variables
of Rock Structures Subject to Dynamic Loads. Explosives and Blasting, 36(3), 10-18.

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Figure 7: Dynamic loads from wind (buildright.com)
Seismic loads result from the movement of the earth crust. The building foundations
are sunk into the earth and the lateral or vertical movements of the earth affect the
sustainability of the building structure.
Figure 8: Seismic loads from the earthquake (buildright.com)
Nature of loads
The loads in a building structure are categorized according to how they are distributed
into point loads, uniformly distributed loads, and uniformly varying loads.

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Stability
For a building structure to be termed stable, it must overcome all the forces that it is exposed
to. There are a couple of common forces in any building structure as discussed below.
Structural Forces
Structural forces are responsible for the stability and the strength of a building. The
forces in a building are based on three of Newton’s laws of motion6.
In building structures, the structural members are meant to stay intact even in the
event of forces acting on them7. This is Newton’s first law of motion that an object should
remain at rest unless acted upon by external forces. In structural analysis, all forces acting on
a structural member should sum to zero8.
Stress and strain
In a building structure that supports a load or a force, stresses build up. When the
forces and loads are exerted on a structural element, deformations occur and this could be to
an extent of permanent deformation that may lead to structure losing its shape9.
There are different types of stresses that must be accounted in buildings structures and
include; tensile, compressive, shear, bending, torsional, bearing, and yield stress.
6 Carpinteri, Alberto. Structural mechanics: a unified approach. CRC Press, 2017.
7 Shames, IrvingH. Energy and Finite Element Methods In Structural Mechanics: SI Units.
Routledge, 2017.
8 Yuhua, Fu. "New Newton Mechanics and Related Problems." LAP LAMBERT Academic
Publishing (2016).
9 Yang, Muxin, Yue Pan, Fuping Yuan, Yuntian Zhu, and Xiaolei Wu. "Back stress
strengthening and strain hardening in gradient structure." Materials Research Letters 4, no. 3
(2016): 145-151.

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Serviceability
Once a building structure is complete and is open for use, it may require maintenance from
time to time. This depends on accessibility of various parts of the structure and thus it is
important factor to consider during design stage. The need for services is attributed by the
factors described below.
Materials
The building materials are among the factors to consider when determining the
sustainability of buildings. The material selection process is an intensive one and only the
best materials that suit their intended function should be selected10.
Weather and environmental conditions
The suitability of a structure is affected by the weather conditions that the building
will be exposed to. The roof, walls, floors among other building structures must be designed
to suit the weather and climate for long-lasting structures.
Substructure
Majority of buildings include foundations sunk deep into the earth crust11. The type of
rock determines the stability of such structures. It is always advisable that the building
foundations, especially high-rise buildings should be formed on the solid strong rock for the
overall stability of the structure. In this way, serviceability will be easy as the structure itself
is stable.
10 Kodur, V. K. R., and T. Z. Harmathy. "Properties of building materials." In SFPE
handbook of fire protection engineering, pp. 277-324. Springer, New York, NY, 2016.
11 Taranath, Bungale S. Tall Building Design: Steel, Concrete, and Composite Systems. CRC
Press, 2016.

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Building function and use
The use of a building is among the factors that affect the suitability of structures. For
instance, a residential building structure is different from cinema structure. The elements of
space and aesthetics are an integral reason why different building have different structures.
Building examples
Sydney Opera House
This building is located in New South Wales and was built in the late 19th Century. It
is a multi-purpose entertainment centre. Jorn Utzon, the Architect of the Sydney Opera House
and the project team put all the factors discussed therein. Since the building is sited on water
grounds, the foundations, walls, roof, etc. have been designed to this environment. The
loading put into an account for this building are both primary and secondary. The live loads
result from the audience who are at least 2,000. The ocean current brings froth win forces that
the building has to accommodate.
Figure 12: Sydney Opera House (global.net.au)

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Eureka Tower
This is the second tallest building in Australia located in Melbourne approximately
15m from the Yarra River12. Its design has factored in all the factors discussed above. The
building loadings and forces are analyzed for the stability of the structure and the safety of
the occupants. The foundations of this building are deep into the bedrock so as to dissipate all
the loadings effectively. Noticeable is the glass curtain walls that reduce the overall weight of
the structure.
Figure 13: Eureka Tower (global.net.au)
Structural components of the selected building
The structural component in the Sydney Opera House is the mullion of the roof
structure. The mullions give the building its unique shape. In addition, it created more room
for the audience. Structural-wise, the shape of the roof assists the building to be
aerodynamically stable from the wind forces effects. The mullions also link all loadings and
direct their impacts to the foundations deep into the earth crust. The mullions allow
serviceability of any part of the roof without compromising its stability.
12 Bell, Matthew. "Are Australia's Cities Outgrowing its Construction Legislation." Monash
UL Rev. 43 (2017): 648.

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Figure 14: Mullions forces distribution (global.net.au)
The structural component of interest in the Eureka tower is the central lift core which
is reinforced concrete. It is the central part of the building that is responsible for the stability
as all the forces flow through it to the foundations. It also forms part of the load bearing
element of the building and thus has a positive impact on the overall strength of the building.
In addition, it is the service shaft that all services of plumbing, drainage, firefighting, air-
conditioning and ventilation are located thus simplifying the whole process of serviceability.
Figure 15: Eureka Tower central core (global.net.au)

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Conclusion
The stability of any building should not be compromised in any way. When all the
factors are considered, the safety of the building occupants as well as building structure and
equipment shall be at the required levels. Otherwise, there shall be failure in buildings as seen
in the Sydney Opal Tower cracks among other buildings in Australia resulting from design
errors in loadings and strength analysis.

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Bibliography
Bell, Matthew. "Are Australia's Cities Outgrowing its Construction Legislation." Monash UL
Rev. 43 (2017): 648.
Carpinteri, Alberto. Structural mechanics: a unified approach. CRC Press, 2017.
Galambos, Theodore V. Structural members, and frames. Courier Dover Publications, 2016.
Gupta, Ajaya Kumar. Response spectrum method in seismic analysis and design of
structures. Routledge, 2017.
Hibbeler, Russell C., and Tan Kiang. Structural analysis. Pearson Prentice Hall, 2015.
Kodur, V. K. R., and T. Z. Harmathy. "Properties of building materials." In SFPE handbook
of fire protection engineering, pp. 277-324. Springer, New York, NY, 2016.
Meacham, Brian J. "Sustainability and resiliency objectives in performance building
regulations." Building Research & Information 44, no. 5-6 (2016): 474-489.
Ryu, C. H., Choi, B. H., & Jang, H. S. (2018). A Study on the Numerical Analysis Variables
of Rock Structures Subject to Dynamic Loads. Explosives and Blasting, 36(3), 10-18.
Shames, IrvingH. Energy and Finite Element Methods In Structural Mechanics: SI Units.
Routledge, 2017.
Taranath, Bungale S. Tall Building Design: Steel, Concrete, and Composite Systems. CRC
Press, 2016.
Yuhua, Fu. "New Newton Mechanics and Related Problems." LAP LAMBERT Academic
Publishing (2016).
Yang, Muxin, Yue Pan, Fuping Yuan, Yuntian Zhu, and Xiaolei Wu. "Back stress
strengthening and strain hardening in gradient structure." Materials Research
Letters 4, no. 3 (2016): 145-151.
Sreedhar Reddy. "From Building Systems Right to Building Right Systems. Buildright.com.
http://www.buildright.com (Accessed July 2019)
Ervin, M. C. Deep footing solution for Eureka Tower Project, Melbourne, Australia.
global.net.au https://convido.global/property/eureka-tower-7-riverside-quay/
(Accessed June 2019)