Jullian Lenard M.

Pineda
BSCE-OJT (NEW CURRICULUM)

I can say that structural design practices here in the

Philippines is kind of a ladder, a process in which if
earthquakes did not happen, there will be no new rules to
apply. As time went by, from the Marcos Regime up until
this very year, we follow rules so that we can say that we
are compliant. Well, in fact, even a building is a well
complied, there is no assurance that this will not be
destroy by earthquakes. One thing is for sure,
earthquakes are unpredictable, thus, we can apply the
infamous quote here, “Prevention is better than cure”. To
avoid casualty, damages to infrastructure and fatality, we
follow some (if not all, because it isn’t applicable) of the
rules guided by the National Structural Code of the
Philippines. According to NSCP, there are two inclusions
of seismic zone, namely zone 2 and zone 4. This dictate
how should any infrastructure should be handled in
construction. One of the famous vloggers said that who
would say that the Philippines is a third world country,
when in fact there are lots of tall and stunning sky
crappers and buildings in Metro Manila. I agree with him,
with all these buildings soaring skies no one will believe
in that. We often notice that there were few buildings that
have curves, it is very simple to answer that, curves are
engineer’s nightmare. They are very hard to compute,
about the materials, there are no such thing, curve-ready
materials in the construction. They must make all the
materials according to the plan. Since Philippines is
located in the Pacific Ring of Fire, it is prone to volcanic
eruption, earthquakes, tsunami and typhoon. According
to what I said above, there are two inclusion zone, which
is Palawan, Sulu and Tawi-tawi is in zone 2, and the rest
is in zone 4. There is different seismic factor between
these two, 0.2 and 0.4 respectively. There are also soil
profile types that will determine if the lot is good for
establishing a building or not. The common structural
systems, are bearing wall, building frame, moment-
resting frame, and dual system. Bearing wall system
provide support for all gravity loads and shear walls
provide a resistance to lateral loads. Building frame
system on the other hand, frame carries the gravity frame
while shear walls carry lateral loads, but this needs to
consider deformation compatibility. Moment-resisting
frame is a structural system with an essentially complete
space frame providing support for gravity. Resistance to
lateral loads is provided primarily by flexural action of
members. Lastly, dual system, is similar to building
frame system except the gravity frame also provide
secondary lateral force resistance. Irregular structures
have significant physical discontinuities in configuration
or in their lateral force system. Nonparallel system of
irregularity exists when the vertical lateral force resisting
elements are not parallel to or symmetric about the major
orthogonal axes of a seismic force resisting system.
Diaphragms must be considered as semi-rigid unless they
can be classified as flexible or rigid. Seismic dead load is
the total dead load and applicable portions of other loads.
Every structure shall be designed to resist the overturning
effects caused by earthquake forces. Palawan is being
considered as the safest part in the Philippines when the
feared Big One hit. Kami, the province is “earthquake
proof” as it is said to be the “most stable island” in the
country. Expansion joints are often used to break a large
building, or an irregular building, into two or more parts
above the foundation level. Building separation is
necessary to prevent or reduce the possibility of two
adjacent structures impacting during an earthquake.