Design of Reinforced Concrete Structures

Loads on Structures, Load combinations, Code Provision

October, 2010
COTM 3003

Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Chair of

Building Construction and City Development
Structural Design
Addis Ababa University
Stability
Loads
 act on structure
 tend to destabilise structure
 also tend to break elements

Supports
 provide reactions
 must be such as to
provide equilibrium
2/28
 Loads
Load
s

Static Dynamic

Forces Dead Loads Live Loads Continuous Impact

due to (fixed) (movable)
Settlements,
Thermal effects,
...
Earthquakes

Self-Weight Fixed Occupancy Environmental Wind

Of Building (snow, ...)
Structure Elements

3/28
Design Loads
Dead Loads (DL) –fixed loads
 building materials/components and the weight of
structural components
Live Loads (LL) –transient and moving loads
 Occupancy loads and furnishing loads (bldg usage)
 Snow loads
 Construction loads
 Live Load maybe variable during structures lifetime
 Building codes specify these loads for floor and roof
loadings
Loads (cont.)
• The building materials impose dead loads
(fixed, vertical)

 The occupants and contents impose live

loads (variable, mostly vertical)

 Wind and earthquake impose live loads

(variable, mostly horizontal)

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Dead Loads
Permanent weight of structure
 non-moveable partitions
 built-ins, heavy equipment

Roof

Walls
Floors

Equipment

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Dead Loads (cont.)
How much does the stuff weigh?
How much of each material is there?
(We have to guesstimate how big the
elements are to start with)

Dead loads

7/28
Dead Loads - Typical Values
Bulk Material Weight/unit Sheet Material Weight/unit
volume area
Concrete, dense 24 kN/m3 Gypsum plaster 0.22 kN/m2
13mm
Hardwood Fibre cement
11.0 kN/m3 6mm 0.11 kN/m2
Steel

Brick 76.9 kN/m3

19.0 kN/m3

8/28
Live Loads
Furniture, Equipment, People, Snow
Moveable Partitions
May or may not be acting all the time

9/28
Live Loads (cont1.)
People move around

May get heavy

concentrations
10/28
Live Loads (cont2.)
Could calculate - but tedious
 Codes specify loads for various types
of occupancies

 EBCS 1 specifies minimum floor live

loads
 Uniformly Distributed (kPa)

 Concentrated (kN) - e.g. tall

bookshelves
11/28
Live Loads (cont3.)
Building Codes give minimum values
Domestic live loads range from 2 kPa
Corridors and balconies are generally 3kPa, to allow
for crowding
Most stores and workshops are >= 5 kPa

Live loads

12/28
 What does
Ethiopian code
specifies????
Examples
Design Loads (continued)
Wind Load (WL) –
Resulting loads
yields
 Lateral load on walls
 Downward and
upward pressure on
roofs
Wind loads
Both Pressure and Suction
Always important for tall buildings
But also important for low buildings -
bracing

13/28
Design Loads (continued)
Wind against a building builds
up a positive pressure on the
windward side and a negative
pressure (or suction) on the
leeward side.
Depending upon the shape of
the structure it may also cause
a negative pressure on the side
walls or even the roof.
Design Loads (continued)
The pressure on the walls and
roof is not uniform, but varies
across the surface. Winds can
apply loads to structures from
unexpected directions. Thus, a
designer must be well aware of
the dangers implied by this
lateral load. The magnitude of
the pressure that acts upon the
surfaces is proportional to the
square of the wind speed.
Wind Loads on Buildings
Suction on lowpitched roofs
- < 300

may need to weigh

down roof

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Wind Loads on Buildings
Wind tends to overturn a tall building
Acts as a vertical cantilever

Pressure
Suction

Reaction
Resisting Moment
16/28
Design Loads (continued)
The magnitude of the pressure
that acts upon the surfaces is
proportional to the square of
the wind speed.
 Factors in Wind Speeds
General wind speed in the region
 (pressure varies with square of the speed)
Local topography affects wind patterns
Wind speed increases with altitude
Wind speed decreases with terrain
roughness Very exposed

More sheltered
Wind

17/28
 Factors in Wind Loads (cont.)
Shelter from anything permanent will
reduce loads
Shape of building affects loads
 Boxy vs streamlined
exposed

Curved
shapes Sheltered
would by buildings
need
special
analysis
18/28
Wind Loads on Elements
In non-cyclone areas, wind loads in the
1kPa range

Multiply by the area exposed to wind

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 EARTH QUAKES Loads

There are many different types of earthquakes: tectonic, volcanic,

and explosion. The type of earthquake depends on the region
where it occurs and the geological make-up of that region. The
most common are tectonic earthquakes. These occur when
rocks in the earth's crust break due to geological forces created
by movement of tectonic plates. Another type,volcanic
earthquakes, occur in conjunction with volcanic activity.
Collapse earthquakes are small earthquakes in underground
caverns and mines, and explosion earthquakes result from the
explosion of nuclear and chemical devices. We can measure
motion from large tectonic earthquakes using GPS because rocks
on either side of a fault are offset during this type of earthquake.
 EARTH QUAKES Loads

Earthquakes are the Earth's natural means of releasing stress.

When the Earth's plates move against each other, stress is put
on the lithosphere. When this stress is great enough, the
lithosphere breaks or shifts. Imagine holding a pencil
horizontally. If you were to apply a force to both ends of the
pencil by pushing down on them, you would see the pencil bend.
After enough force was applied, the pencil would break in the
middle, releasing the stress you have put on it. The Earth's crust
acts in the same way. As the plates move they put forces on
themselves and each other. When the force is large enough, the
crust is forced to break. When the break occurs, the stress is
released as energy which moves through the Earth in the form
of waves, which we feel and call an earthquake.
EARTH QUAKES Loads
 EARTH QUAKES Loads
At some time after their generation, these seismic waves will
reach the earth's surface, and set it in motion, which we not
surprisingly refer to as earthquake ground motion. When this
earthquake ground motion occurs beneath a building and when it
is strong enough, it sets the building in motion, starting with the
building's foundation, and transfers the motion throughout the
rest of the building in a very complex way. These motions in turn
induce forces which can produce damage.
Building Frequency and Period
Another way to understand this is to think of the building's
response in terms of another important quantity, the building's
natural period. The building period is simply the inverse of the
frequency: Whereas the frequency is the number of times per
second that the building will vibrate back and forth, the period is
the time it takes for the building to make one complete vibration.
The relationship between frequency f and period T is thus very
simple math:
T=1/f
This means that a short building with a high natural frequency
also has a short natural period. Conversely, a very tall building
with a low frequency has a long period. For example, it takes the
Empire State Building a comparatively long time to sway back and
forth during a strong gust of wind. (See Figure 3.) The table
below gives a representative range of building heights and natural
periods:
Building Height Typical Natural Period
2 story .2 seconds
5 story .5 seconds
10 story 1.0 seconds
20 story 2.0 seconds
30 story 3.0 seconds
 EARTH QUAKES Loads
When the frequency contents of the ground motion are centered
around the building's natural frequency, we say that the building
and the ground motion are in resonance with one another.
Resonance tends to increase or amplify the building's response.
Because of this, buildings suffer the greatest damage from
ground motion at a frequency close or equal to their own
natural frequency.
Newton's Law

Acceleration has this important influence on damage, because, as

an object in movement, the building obeys Newton' Second Law
of Dynamics. The simplest form of the equation which expresses
the Second Law of Motion is:
F = MA
This states the Force acting on the building is equal to the Mass
of the building times the Acceleration. So, as the acceleration of
the ground, and in turn, of the building, increase, so does the
force which affects the building, since the mass of the building
doesn't change.
Of course, the greater the force affecting a building, the more
damage it will suffer; decreasing F is an important goal of
earthquake resistant design. When designing a new building, for
example, it is desirable to make it as light as possible, which
means, of course, that M, and in turn, F will be lessened. Various
techniques are now also available for reducing A.
Building Stiffness
The taller a building, the longer its natural period tends to be. But
the height of a building is also related to another important
structural characteristic: the building flexibility. Taller buildings
tend to be more flexible than short buildings. (Only consider a
thin metal rod. If it is very short, it is difficulty to bend it in your
hand. If the rod is somewhat longer, and of the same diameter, it
becomes much easier to bend. Buildings behave similarly.) We
say that a short building is stiff, while a taller building is flexible.
Stiffness greatly affects the building's uptake of earthquake
generated force. Reconsider our first example above, of the rigid
stone block deeply founded in the soil. The rigid block of stone is
very stiff; as a result it responds in a simple, dramatic manner.
Real buildings, of course, are more inherently flexible, being
composed of many different parts. Furthermore, not only is the
block stiff, it is brittle; and because of this, it cracks during the
earthquake. This leads us to the next important structural
characteristic of a building's earthquake performance: ductility
Figure 5
Ductility is the ability to undergo distortion or deformation--
bending, for example-- without resulting in complete breakage or
failure. To take once again the example of the rigid block in
Figure 5, the block is an example of a structure with extremely
low ductility. To see how ductility can improve a building's
performance during an earthquake, consider Figure 4. For the
block, we have substituted a combination of a metal rod and a
weight. In response to the ground motion, the rod bends but
does not break. (Of course, metals in general are more ductile
than materials such as stone, brick and concrete.) Obviously, it is
far more desirable for a building to sustain a limited amount of
deformation than for it to suffer a complete breakage failure.
Design Loads (continued)
Earthquake Loads
(EQ)
 Seismic load based on
building mass , type
and configuration.
 Vertical and lateral
forces (dynamic)
 Building codes can
simplify loading
 What does
Ethiopian code
specifies????
Load Path through a
simple building
A “good” design?
 The building dead load is the only known
load. All other forces will vary in
magnitude, duration and location.
 The building is designed for design load
possibilities that may never occur.
 The structural efficiency of a building is
measured as the ratio of dead to live
load.The building designer strives to keep
the ratio low.