Factors to Consider When Determining the Suitability of a Building Structure

Surname 1
Construction Management
Student’s Name
Course
Professor’s Name
Date

Surname 2
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

Surname 3
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.

Surname 4
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.