Reinforced Concrete Building


Objective

The objective of this project is to gain knowledge about the components of reinforced concrete buildings, the difference between them and bearing wall buildings, and the loads to which such buildings are subjected. The gained knowledge will be applied in building a Skeleton Reinforced Concrete Model.

Scope of the Project

The scope of the project includes two types of structural systems of buildings, the skeleton concrete building, and the bearing wall buildings.

A Comparison Between Skeleton Concrete Buildings and Bearing Wall Buildings

The following information has been collected from Internet resources.

Skeleton Concrete Buildings

Building Components:
A- Structural Elements:

  1. Foundations:
    i- Plain concrete base resting on the soil layers.
    ii- Reinforced concrete base resting on the plain concrete base.
    iii- Reinforced concrete smells joint the reinforced concrete bases.
  2. Columns: They are made of reinforced concrete and they rest on the reinforced concrete base and extend vertically to the level of the ground floor ceiling.
  3. Beams : They are made of reinforced concrete and they rest on the columns at each floor level.
  4. Floor Slab: It is made of reinforced concrete and it rests on the beams at each floor.
  5. Stairs: They are made of reinforced concrete and they connect each two floor levels.

B- Non-Structural Elements:

  1. The Walls: They are made of masonry or brick and are used to fill the openings between columns.
  2. Doors and windows: They are made of different materials such as wood, steel, glass, and so on.
  3. Floor finishing: Tiles of ground as ceramic or wood covering
  4. Wall finishing: Painting, plastering, wall paper and so on
Constructing the model

Advantages:

  1. It can be constructed with any number of floors according to the bearing capacity of the soil.
  2. Openings as windows or doors can be made with any width and height.
  3. Walls between columns can be removed for decorative design.

Disadvantages:

  1. Buildings can not resist the temperature and moisture effect due to the small thickness of walls.
  2. It is much effected by earthquake loads.

Bearing Wall Type

In this type of buildings the live and dead loads come from the ceiling and the beams to the wall. Then, they reach the underneath continous base which distributes the upper weight to the available layer of soil. On the other hand we can conclude that the thickness of walls increases as we come near to the base.

Building Components:
A- Structural Elements:
     Flooring slab, Beams, Brick walls, Stairs, and Foundations.

B- Non Structural Elements:
     Doors, Windows, and finishing materials.

Advantages:

  1. A good insulator of sound and temperature due to it’s thickness.
  2. It is low in cost compared to the skeleton concrete buildings.
  3. The building works as one unit so it reduces the effect of earthquakes.
  4. It can give large open space because there are no columns that disturb the furniture.

Disadvantages:

  1. You can not make any changes in the building like removing any wall
  2. You can not construct more than five or six floors only
  3. The thickness of the wall is too big so it reduces the inner space in rooms.
  4. Wide openings can weak the building.

Load Types

The types of loads affecting the buildings can be summarized in the following:

  1. Dead Loads: weight of the structural and non-structural elements, finishing weight, and any fixed elements.
  2. Live Loads: weight of residential people and furniture and any moving loads.
  3. Wind Loads: Effect of the pressure of wind on the whole building especially, in a windy area.
  4. Earthquake Loads: Effect of the horizontal and vertical forces resulting from earthquake motions.
The Finished Model

Illustrative Model

An illustrative model was made to demonstrate the structural and non-structural elements of a reinforced concrete building. The model is of a villa of two floors ground, and first, with scale equal to 25: 1.
The model was built using the following material: Wood (Palse type), foam, Cardboard, Glue material and color spray.

The model is shown in the photographs presented with this report.

Acknowledgment

We would like to express our thanks, and deepest gratitude to Dr. Nasr Zenhom Hassan, Professor of Reinforced Concrete in the Faculty of Engineering, Mataria, Helwan University, Cairo - Egypt for his guidance and valuable help while working in this project.

The Project Reviewers

Brad Roscoe, Robert Young, Short Allerton


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