Department of Civil & Construction Engineering

University of Nairobi
BQS 312
CIVIL ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY
INTRODUCTION TO STRUCTURAL
ENGINEERING

LESSON 2
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKeENd
yIluI&feature=related
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sb6xz
p_sK8A
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgNc
Qx3uaXc
Structural Engineering is used so
that the events in the preceding
videos never take place.

“Engineers shall hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the
public and shall strive to comply with the principles of sustainable
development in the performance of their professional duties. “

- 1st Fundamental Engineering Canon

Structural Engineering Overview

• What is a Structural Engineer?

• What do they do?
• What do they design?
Structural Engineering Overview

• What is a Structural Engineer?

• What do they do?
• What do they design?
 What is a Structural Engineer?
• Engineer
– Mathematics of design
• Architect/Artist
– Vision
– Aesthetics of design
• Mediator
– Liason between parties
on a project
• Salesman
– Must sell your idea,
yourself
Structural Engineering Overview

• What is a Structural Engineer?

• What do Structural Engineers do?
• What do they design?
 What do SE’s do?
• Designer
– Consultant
• Take a design, and fit a structural system to that
• Expert witnesses in lawsuits
– Inspector
• Fieldwork, Job site inspections
• Oversee the materials (concrete, steel, etc.)
• Inspect the building – pre- and post-construction
– Demolitions
• Building deconstruction
• Structural Retro-fits
Structural Engineering Overview

• What is a Structural Engineer?

• What do Structural Engineers do?
• What do they design?
 SE Works
Buildings Bridges
SE’s design/analyze Structures
• What is a structure?
– A system designed to resist or support
loading and dissipate energy
• Building Structures
– Houses
– Skyscrapers
– Anything designed for continuous human occupation
• Non-building Structures
– Bridges
– Tunnels
 Principal Objectives in design of
Structures
• To achieve Safety, serviceability and durability.
• This can be arrived at by ensuring the
following requirements are met;
• Fundamental requirements (safety, serviceability,
resistance to fire and robustness)
• Reliability management and differentiation
• Design working life
• Durability
• Quality assurance and quality control
• This needs a professional who is well versed
with the theory of structures and design codes
and national building code
 What constitutes loading?
• Loading is a force being enacted on the
structure
– Many sources of load
• Gravity/Weight
• Wind
• Snow
• Earthquake
• Man-made
– Two Types of Structural Loading
• Dead Loads – static, ever-present (i.e. Walls, Floors, etc)
• Live Loads – dynamic, changing (i.e. People, Desk, etc)
 Forces
• Influence on an object that causes a change in a
physical quantity
• Considered “vectors” – magnitude and direction
• Static Force
– Unchanging with time
• Walls
• Floors
• Dynamic Force
– Changing with time
• People
• Furniture
 Forces
• Axial Forces
– Acting along one axis, directly on a point or surface

• Momential (Bending) Force

– Acting along an axis, at a certain distance from a
point, causes a folding motion
– M = F*d

F
 Forces
• Tensile Force
– Pulling on an object – stretching it
– Steel shows “necking” when too much tensile
force is applied
• Compressive Force
– Pushing on an object – collapsing it
– Concrete crushes when too much
compressive force is applied
 Forces
• Strain
– Tensile-related property
– Deformation / Length
• Stress
– Compression-related
property
– Force / Area
• Compare using stress-
strain graph
Types of stresses in structures
 What should we build our
structures out of??

• Common Structural Materials

– Timber
– Masonry
– Concrete
– Steel
– Composites
How do we judge the materials?
• Common Material Properties
– Strength – Tensile/Compressive
– Density
– Hardness
– Ductility / Brittleness
– Elasticity
– Toughness
 Strength
• Ability of a material to withstand loading
– Tensile strength – ability of a material to withstand a
pulling force
• Steel is good at this, but concrete performs very poorly.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdqvGGFIbfc

– Compressive strength – ability of a material to

withstand a pushing force
• Wood, concrete, steel, and masonry perform well
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WC6AgX2N1Go&feature=r
elated
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5qwvtEqC5o&fe
ature=related
 Density
• Mass per unit volume of a material
– Units – mass/vol - kg/m3 or lb-m/ft3
– Typically, materials with a high density are
very strong and offer great protection.
– However, a high density means that they are
heavy and difficult to work with $$$$$
 Hardness
• Ability of a material to resist permanent
deformation under a sharp load
– Relates to the elasticity of a material
– Diamond is a very hard substance. If we built
a wall out of diamond, we could be sure that
very few things would scratch it.
– However, Diamond is incredibly expensive
and not as tough as other engineering metals.
It wouldn’t stand up as well in impact loading
versus other materials.
 Ductility / Brittleness
• Ability of a material to deform without
fracture
– We want materials with high ductility, because
they will indicate structural failure without a
sudden collapse.
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXpqW9B0
eT4&feature=related – “Brittle failure”
 Elasticity
• Ability of a material to deform and return to
it’s original shape.
– Important quantity
• Young’s Modulus
• Ratio of stress to strain
– Stress = Force / Area (lbs./in2 or N/m2)
– Strain = Deformation / Length (unitless)
• Generates a stress-strain graph
• Related to the ductility of a material
 Toughness
• Ability of a material to resist fracture when
stressed (amount of energy absorbed per
unit volume)
– Units – J/m3 or Lb-f/ft3
– Area under the stress-strain curve, evaluated
from 0 to the desired strain.
So, we know what properties are
important in structural materials.

How do the common materials

stack up against each other?
 Timber
• Advantages
– Cheap, renewable resource
– Good in Tension – ~40 MPa
• Disadvantages
– Susceptible to fire, nature
– Not very hard
– Not very strong
– Limits on shape, size
 Masonry
• Concrete blocks, clay bricks
– Advantages
• Large compressive strength
• Cheap
• Good thermal properties – holds heat
well
– Disadvantages
• Not a cohesive material. The strength
could depend on the mortar, other
factors
• Poor tensile strength, unless reinforced
• Heavy material, requires skilled
laborers to use $$$$$
• Height restriction
• Susceptible to the weather
 Concrete
• Combination of water, cement, small
aggregate, and large aggregate.
• Advantages
– Very versatile – can be modified with
admixtures for different effects
– High compressive strength (4~7 ksi)
– Fire resistant
– Many diverse sizes and shapes - formwork
Concrete
• Disadvantages
– Long curing time
– Low tension
strength (~0.4
ksi)
– Fails in shear,
unless reinforced
– Fairly heavy
material to work
with
 Steel
• Advantages
– High tensile and compressive strength (A36
Steel ~ 60 ksi)
– Many varieties, depending on your need
• Carbon steel
• Stainless steel
• Galvanized steel
– Elastic material
– Ductile material
– Many shapes, sizes
 Steel
• Disadvantages
– Expensive – limited quantities / competition
– Susceptible to fire, rust, impurities
 Put them together and…
• Reinforced Concrete
– Concrete with steel reinforcement
• Concrete handles compression
• Steel takes the tension
– Can handle nearly 4 times the loading that
concrete alone can handle
– More expensive material
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGbrp7Mfp
2w
 Composites
• Engineered compounds that have different
physical or chemical properties
– FRP – Fiber reinforced polymers
– CFRP – Carbon-fiber reinforced polymers
– Plastics
– Categories of Glass
– Categories of Wood
So, now we know what material
will best suit our needs..

What should we build with it?

 Structural Shapes
• Rectangle / Square
• Triangle
– Interested in stability
• Truss
• Geodesic Dome
 Shape Stability Exercise
• Split into teams of 5
• Build a triangle and square
• See which shape is the most stable
– Can the unstable shapes be made stable?
– How?
Rectangle
• Advantages
– Proficient in
resisting
vertical load.
• Disadvantages
– No lateral
support
 Triangle
• Advantages
– Able to withstand
lateral & vertical
loading
– Many triangular
shapes available
• Disadvantage
– Wide base = $$$$
 Rectangle
• Advantages
– Proficient in
resisting
vertical load.
• Disadvantages
Need another
– No lateral
bar for lateral (horizontal)
support!
load support
--BRACING--
 Truss
• Combination of square and triangle
 Truss
• Combination of square and triangle

Squares
 Truss
• Combination of square and triangle

Triangles
 Truss
• Combination of square and triangle
– Both vertical and lateral support
Geodesic Dome
Domes
 Domes
• Advantages
– Very strong shape, gets strong as the dome
size increases
– Perfect load distribution
– No need for structural supports
– Great aerodynamic performance
 Structural Components
• Beams Column Girder

• Girders
• Columns
• Floors
• Foundations

Beam
 Load Path
• Floor

• Beams

• Girders

• Columns

• Foundation

• Soil/Bedrock
 Foundations
• Support the building
– Typically attached to columns
• Types
– Shallow
• Spread footing – concrete strip/pad below the frost line
• Slab-on-grade – concrete pad on the surface
– Deep
• Drilled Shafts
• Piles
 Columns
• Carry the load from floors to the foundation
– Never want the columns to fail COLLAPSE
– Typically reinforced concrete or steel
– Many sizes and shapes
Girders
• Attached column-
to-column
– Take the load
from the beams
– Transfer it to the
columns
– Generally shaped
as an I-Beam
 Beams

• Attached between
the girders
– Take load from the
flooring system
– Transfer it to the
girders
– Generally solid
squares, I-beams
 Flooring
• Composed of a subfloor and floor covering
– Usually leave space for ductwork, wiring, etc.
– Floor covering ranges from application to
application
 Types of High-Rise Buildings
Structural Systems.
1. Braced frame structural system.
2. Rigid frame structural system.
3. Wall-frame system (dual system)
4. Shear wall system.
5. Core and outrigger structural system.
6. Infilled frame structural system.
7. Flat plate and flat slab structural system.
Braced frame structural system.

• A braced frame is a structural system

commonly used in structures subject to
lateral loads such as wind and seismic
pressure. The members in a braced frame
are generally made of structural steel,
which can work effectively both in tension
and compression.
Braced frame structural system.

• The beams and columns that form the

frame carry vertical loads, and the bracing
system carries the lateral loads. The
positioning of braces, however, can be
problematic as they can interfere with the
design of the façade and the position of
openings. Buildings adopting high-tech or
post-modernist styles have responded to
this by expressing bracing as an internal
or external design feature.
Braced frame structural system.
 Shear wall system.
• A shear wall is a structural panel that can
resist lateral forces acting on it.
• Lateral forces are those that are parallel to
the plane of the wall, and are typically
wind and seismic loads. In simple terms,
lateral forces could push over parallel
structural panels of a building were it not
for perpendicular shear walls keeping
them upright.
Shear wall system.
Shear wall system.
 Shear wall system.
• Shear walls can be positioned at the
perimeter of buildings or they may form a
shear core – a structure of shear walls in
the centre of a building, typically encasing
a lift shaft or stairwell.
 Types of Bridge Structural
Systems.
1. Beam Bridge.
2. Truss Bridge.
3. Cantilever Bridge.
4. Arch Bridge.
5. Tied Arch Bridge.
6. Suspension Bridge.
7. Cable-stayed Bridge.
 Cable Stay Bridge
• A cable stayed bridge is dependent upon
towers/pylons which are the load-bearing
element of the structure. Cables are
connected from the pylons to the deck
below. Either directly from the top of the
tower or at different points of the column.
When connected at different points of the
column this creates a fan like pattern. This
is the feature many people associate with
cable stayed bridges.
Cable Stay Bridge
 Cable Stay Bridge
• This type of structure tends to be used for
distances greater than those achieved with
a cantilever bridge design but less than a
suspension bridge. One of the main issues
with this type of bridge is that the central
connection of the cables can place
horizontal pressure on the deck.
Therefore, the deck structure needs to be
reinforced to withstand these ongoing
pressures.
 Beam Bridge
• Beam bridges are the simplest bridge
type. Normally consist of one or more
spans, supported by abutment or pier at
each end. May be constructed if RCC or
steel or a combination of both.
• The concrete elements used in beam
bridges may be reinforced, prestressed or
post-tensioned.
Beam Bridge
Construction technology...

How do they build them?

 Concrete

• Concrete
– Concrete Materials
– Fresh concrete and
placement
– Hard concrete
 Concrete
• Materials
– Fine aggregates or
sand -
– Coarse aggregates
or ballast
– Cement and
cementitious
additives
– Water
– Admixtures
Examples of Admixtures; set retarding, air entrainment,
water reducing, accelerating, shrinkage reducing, super
plasticizers, corrosion inhibitors
 Concrete
• Tests on fresh
concrete
– Slump test-
– Flow test
– Compacting factor
test
– VeBe Time test

• Tests on SCC concrete

– L Box test
– J ring test
– V funnel test
– Orimet test
 Concrete

The principles governing proper placement of concrete are:

• Segregation must be avoided during all operations between the mixer
and the point of placement, including final consolidation and finishing.
• The concrete must be thoroughly consolidated, worked solidly around all
embedded items, and should fill all angles and corners of the forms.
• Where fresh concrete is placed against or on hardened concrete, a good
bond must be developed.
• Unconfined concrete must not be placed under water.
• The temperature of fresh concrete must be controlled from the time of
mixing through final placement, and protected after placement
 Steel
• Steel
– Planning and
design
– Fabrication &,
transport
– Assembly and
commissioning
Structural steel Steel
fabrication involves the
preparation and alteration of
steel beams and other
materials to precise
specifications. The goal of
structural steel fabrication is
to fabricate parts that fit
together perfectly and can
attach securely to each other
to form a durable frame for
buildings, bridges, large
equipment, and other
commercial projects. There
are several key aspects to
high-quality structural steel
fabrication.
 So, what can go wrong..

What should we do about it?

 Design Failures
• Hyatt Regency 1981, Missouri (114
fatalities)
– The collapse was traced to failure of the connections
between the fourth-story box beams and the hanger
rods supporting the second-story and fourth-
story walkways
 Construction Failures
• Sampoong Dept Store
1995, seoul (502
fatalities)
– The collapse was traced to
structural overload after the
owner changed from
construction of residential
building to supermarket &
office complex. Removed
columns to create space for
escalators. Also substandard
concrete was used.
 Maintenance Failures
• Morandi bridge
collapse, 2018, Genoa
(43 fatalities)
– The collapse was traced to
lack of maintenance for the
bridge built in 1967.