Strength and Load considerations for Building structural design

[James]

Every building, structure or members of it must be designed to
withstand various live and dead load combinations safely to avoid any
deflection or calamity. Building systems and structural members must
have sufficient strength to limit deflections, trembling or any other
deformations that may affect the performance of the structure. It also
important to take deformation loads like heat, creep and contraction
into considerations for better safety.

The building designer must take necessary steps to keep building free
from deformations, deterioration or cracking. In some cases it is also
critical to make the building capable of tolerating severe climate
conditions (such as storm, snow or earthquake) without any serious
damage that may affect the building's service life.

Building codes such as AISC, NDS define maximum limit allowed for the
deflections in structural members. Deflection limits are required to
curb damage to structure, roofs, partitions and sections. In some
instances, deflection limits lower than those defined may be required
to restrict damage to nonstructural members like stairs, handrails,
glass, etc.

Any building is subjected to various horizontal, vertical and lateral
loads. The building designer must consider all loads applicable to
given building to make sure all the structural members and connections
have adequate strength and stiffness to retain structural integrity.
He must provide direct and continuous load paths across the structure
from the roof to footing. Building performance more or less depend on
factors like design configuration, load paths, connections, materials
used and construction method employed.

If you want to use materials of grades other than those specified in
standard documents, the working or yield stresses and construction
details should be adjusted to accommodate the material property and
characteristics. You must review building design concepts, analyze
existing plans, produce and review detailed shop drawings using 3D
building models to ensure complete integrity of the proposed
structure.

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