The pre-engineered metal building system is a building enclosure system that

always includes a structural system and often includes roof and wall cladding.
The structural system consists of rigid frames that are fabricated from plate
steel and “cold formed”  through a manufacturing process. These rigid
frames consist of roof beams and columns that are field bolted together.

The pre-engineered metal building system is advantageous because it very

economically allows for the creation of large column-free enclosures. The
alternative structural framing choices, such as mill steel and light gauge
metal, use more steel and are therefore considerably more expensive to
build. The best applications for the pre-engineered metal building system
include industrial applications such as complex industrial facilities,
warehouses and distribution centers. The system is also used in retail stores,
shopping centers, motels, auto dealerships, office complexes, airplane
hangars, sports and entertainment arenas as well as schools, libraries,
churches, medical facilities and government buildings.

THE COMPONENTS OF PEB SYSTEM

These PEB buildings are composed with the combination of various sections
they are built up sections, hot rolled sections and the elements of cold
formed sections. The basic steel frame work is provided by these elements.
The PEB components may be broadly classified into following parts they are
as follows:

Primary Frame – Pre-engineered steel building is portal frame construction

comprises of primary and secondary framing and bracing system. A
combination of these three elements and weather covering sheeting results
in stable steel buildings instead of individual frame.

Secondary structural frames – Secondary framing system is mainly purlin

and girt of Z or C shapes of various sizes. In Pre-engineered buildings
normally cold form Z sections are used for secondary framing to achieve high
strength and lower weight. Purlins/girt are members which transfers forces
and moments from one frame to another frame for overall stability of the
building structure and it all acts as framing system for weather covering
sheeting purpose.

Roof and Wall Panels – Tin shades & Curtain Wall made of Glass & Roll-
formed steel sheets usually comes in the category. From transfer of wind
force and other acting loads form building frame to the foundation at certain
interval. X-bracing system is used to change the direction of forces for
reducing the impact of forces. Normally rod, pipes or angles are used for x-
bracing purpose.

Sandwich Panels – Sandwich panel is made of three layers in which a non-

Aluminium Core is inserted between two aluminium sheets.
Weather covering for roof and walls – In order to provide weather
covering for roof and walls from external condition, steel structure need to be
covered fully/partially as per functional requirements. For all purposes this
covering provides access for all architectural and function requirements as
well. Normally, metal profiled steel sheets are used for covering purpose.
Now a day’s different color/color combinations are used to make building
more aesthetic & elegant. There are various other elements of sheeting such
as flashings, trims, ridge cover, peak panel, rack trim, drip trim etc. which is
made of the same material as of sheeting and equally important for weather
tight functioning of the building. In addition, proper rain water gutter for
collection of rainwater and down take pipe for discharge of water from gutter
to the ground is also a key element to the building for overall performance of
the building. All sheetings are joined together with the help of self
drilling/self tapping screw and necessary sealing material such as butyl tape,
sealant, foam filler etc. are used to make buildings more efficient.

Mezzanine system – Now a day’s construction of mezzanine system is very

common being used in steel building for various purposes. In most of the
factory or warehouse building shop floor office, production offices, stores,
maintenance office, wash rooms, canteen etc. are made above the shop floor
area wherever surplus head rooms are available. This also helps in saving the
floor area as well creates ease of serving being closely. This also reduces the
cost of construction A typical mezzanine system is basically a joist beam
construction taking support from the building columns as per availability and
top of beams and joist deck slab is poured over GI decking of profiles metal
sheet. A light reinforcement over decking and light concrete is used to make
a permanent floor. Typical mezzanine details for various elements are shown
below.

Anchoring – In order to install the steel building on RCC

pedestal/foundation, it is necessary to have an anchoring system suitably
designed to take up various loads and forces of the building and to transfer
the same to the ground through anchor bolts arrangement. Size of anchor
bolts and its quantities are designed as per reactions calculated as per
building design.

Building accessories – There are various other building elements which

may not be important structurally but very important functionally and it adds
performance of the building. Skylight, wall light, Doors, windows, louvers,
ventilators, turbo-vent, insulations, roof curb etc. are equally important to
the smooth functioning of the building.

Crane system – All pre-engineered steel buildings can be designed for

crane operation provision as per operational need. There is various type of
crane being used in industry for various purposes- EOT overhead crane with
pendant or cabin operated, Overhung/under-slung crane system, Monorail
crane or hoist system, Wall mounted crane and Jib crane.
Paints and finishes – Pre-painted steel is produced on modern, high-speed
coil painting lines where surface preparation prior to painting, paint
application & paint curing is done on a highly automated line under optimum
condition.

For the construction of these structures use of hot rolled tapered sections for
primary framing and cold formed sections may be used as per the internal
requirements for the stress for secondary framing, thus the control of
wastage of steel and the weight of the structure and hence lighter
foundations. These kinds of structures are basically rigid jointed structure
frames from hot rolled or cold formed sections, the roofs and side wall
cladding is supported by main and secondary frames by purlins and sheeting
rails. For the selection of PEB roof slope is selected from 5 to 12 degree,
because of least volume of air occupied during heating and cooling of the
structure. To achieve the reduction in time of design, fabrication and
installation the pre-engineered building system concentrates on the use of
pre-designed connections and predetermined material stocks for structure to
design and fabricate

STRUCTURAL SYSTEMS OF PEB

In structural engineering, a pre-engineered building (PEB) is designed by a

PEB supplier or PEB manufacturer, to be fabricated using best suited
inventory of raw materials available from all sources and manufacturing
methods that can efficiently satisfy a wide range of structural and aesthetic
design requirements. Within some geographic industry sectors these
buildings are also called pre-engineered metal buildings (PEMB) or, as is
becoming increasingly common due to the reduced amount of pre-
engineering involved in custom computer-aided designs, simply engineered
metal buildings (EMB).
Pre-engineered buildings are factory-built buildings of steel that are shipped
to site and bolted together. What distinguishes them from other buildings is
that the contractor also designs the building – a practice called design &
build. This style of construction is ideally suited to industrial buildings and
warehouses; it is cheap, very fast to erect, and can also be dismantled and
moved to another site – more on that later. These structures are sometimes
called ‘metal boxes’ or ‘tin sheds’ by laymen – they are essentially
rectangular boxes enclosed in a skin of corrugated metal sheeting.

Great speed is achieved because while the foundations and floor slab are
being constructed, the beams and columns – the structural system – are
being fabricated in the factory. Once the foundations and floor are done, the
columns are shipped to the site, lifted into place by cranes, and bolted
together.

The structural system of pre-engineered steel buildings give it its speed and
flexibility. This system consists of factory-fabricated and factory-painted steel
column and beam segments that are simply bolted together at site. The
columns and beams are custom-fabricated I-section members that have an
end plate with holes for bolting at both ends. These are made by cutting
steel plates of the desired thickness, and welding them together to make I
sections. The cutting and welding is done by industrial robots for speed and
accuracy; operators will simply feed a CAD drawing of the beams into the
machines, and they do the rest. This production line style of work makes for
great speed and consistency in fabrication. The shape of the beams can be
tailored to optimum structural efficiency: they are deeper where the forces
are greater, and shallow where they are not. This is one form of construction
in which the structures are designed to carry exactly the loads envisioned,
and no more.

In order to accurately design a pre-engineered building, engineers consider

the clear span between bearing points, bay spacing, roof slope, live loads,
dead loads, collateral loads, wind uplift, deflection criteria, internal crane
system and maximum practical size and weight of fabricated members.
Historically, pre-engineered building manufacturers have developed pre-
calculated tables for different structural elements in order to allow designers
to select the most efficient I beams size for their projects. However, the table
selection procedures are becoming rare with the evolution in computer-aided
custom designs.

While pre-engineered buildings can be adapted to suit a wide variety of

structural applications, the greatest economy will be realized when utilising
standard details. An efficiently designed pre-engineered building can be
lighter than the conventional steel buildings by up to 30%. Lighter weight
equates to less steel and a potential price savings in structural framework.