CENV2024: Structural Design and Materials Part 1: Calculation of design loads, moments and forces Types of loading.

The most important gravity loads include: 1. Dead loads which comprises the self-weight of the structure as well as immovable items such as cladding to buildings and permanent floor finishes. 2. Imposed loads comprise everything that can be removed, including people, vehicles, fixtures and fittings. 3. Snow loads The main no-gravity loads include wind loads, seismic loads and vehicle impact loads. Partial Safety Factors. In design there are two conditions that need to be satisfied: the Ultimate Limit State (ULS) and the Serviceability Limit State (SLS) The ULS relates the structural strength and failure to satisfy this condition will result in structural failure or possibly collapse. An example of a ULS failure would be a bridge deck in which gravity loads exceeded the shear strength resulting in collapse. SLS relates to the fitness for purpose and failure to comply may result in for example excessive deflection. Since failure to satisfy the SLS condition is less serious than the ULS condition, no factors of safety are applied to SLS checks, i.e. deflection checks. The Ultimate Limit State condition. In this condition the objective is to ensure that Design Strength Design Load where: Structural Capacity Design Strength = Partial Safety Factor Design Load = Actual Load x Partial Safety Factor

Example 1
The Serviceability Limit State condition. The most common SLS condition of interest is the check to ensure that beams do not deflect excessively under working loads. Beam deflections are calculated using UNFACTORED loads and are typically limited to: Length/180 for cantilever beams Span/350 for beams carrying plaster or brittle finishes (i.e. office buildings) Span/200 all other beams Height/300 is the maximum horizontal deflections for columns Height/500 for the sideways sway of tall buildings under wind loads

Example 2
Factor of Safety (FoS). The FoS describes how much stronger a structural member (or system) is than is required to support the applied working loads, i.e.: Design strength Factor of Safety, FoS = Working Load This is a useful parameter because it describes the amount of overload possible before collapse and it can be used to identify the first mode of failure for a given structure, i.e. if the FoS is calculated for every component in a suspension bridge, then the member most likely to fail first can be identified. If that critical failure mode were brittle in nature the designer may decide to strengthen the component so that a ductile failure mode was critical. Note: The working load is the load calculated in the absence of safety factors (the same as the serviceability limit state load). Using Partial Safety Factors to calculate Design Loads. Design loads are working loads multiplied by partial safety factors and the most important loads are: Dead Load, gk 1

Imposed Load, qk Wind Load, wk The main partial safety factors for loads are listed in Table 1.

Load gk (unfavourable) gk (favourable) qk wk gk, qk & wk combined

Partial safety factor, F 1.35 1.00 1.50 1.50 1.35

Table 1: Safety Factors for Loads It is usually necessary to try different load combinations in order to establish which produce the maximum forces and moments in different parts of a structure. The main load combinations are: 1.35gk + 1.5qk (most common) 1.0gk + 1.5qk (overturning or sliding) 1.35 (gk + qk + wk) 1.35gk + 1.5wk 1.0gk + 1.5wk (uplift on roofs, overturning or sliding)

Example 3
Patterned Loading. Figure 1(a) shows the load combination of dead + imposed loads for a simply supported single span beam. This combination provides the maximum moments and shears and further combinations are not necessary. The continuous beam shown in b, c and d is more complicated because no single combination of loads will provide the maximum moment or shear at every position. The combination of full factored loads across the entire two spans (Figure 1(b)) provides the maximum moment at the support. Unfactoring the dead load and removing the imposed load in the right hand span provides the maximum midspan moment on the left hand span Figure 1(c) and likewise for Figure 1 (d). This process of adjusting factors of safety and removing loads to establish the maximum design moments and forces is called PATTERN LOADING.
1.35 gk + 1.5 qk A Load combinations for maximum moment at A (a)

1.35 gk + 1.5 qk

1.35 gk + 1.5 qk (b) A

1.35 gk + 1.5 qk A

1.0 gk (c)

1.0 gk

1.35 gk + 1.5 qk (d) A

Figure 1: Load combinations for beams resisting dead (gk) and imposed (qk) loads The load combinations for wind load can be more complicated, because they need to be combined with up to two separate gravity loads (dead and imposed). In addition, wind loads can act up and down, as well as sideways, whereas gravity loads act only downwards. Since wind loads are often upwards due to suction effects, the critical load combination for wind is often unfactored dead + fully factored wind load. Example 4 Useful design formulae for the examination 2

Figure 4 shows the design formulae related to buckling and beams that are provided in the examination for this module. You should become acquainted with their use as they will prove useful.

Figure 2: Extracts from An Engineers Data Book by Calvert and Farrar