STRUCTURAL DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF BUILDINGS - (THE IMPORTANCE).

STRUCTURAL DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF BUILDINGS -

 (THE IMPORTANCE).

INTRODUCTION 

      In Nigeria, we find a lot of artisans, who are purportedly called engineers at the construction site, most of the time these artisans or technicians never saw the walls of the university or polytechnic or any form of higher education; but because they, having interest in building construction they adapt themselves into the art of building construction. 

      Thereafter, when they have perfected in the art of building and the skills that are attributed to it. They are set to work.

Meanwhile they have not learned the importance of structural analysis and design of buildings, therefore they tend to use what I call the "the builders working experience"; 

One may ask - 'what does this mean'?

I'll explain in practical terms - 

Some artisan wins a contract to supervise the raising of a story building.

When he is faced with the reality of the structural implication involved in his work; he goes to refer to previous work done, he borrows the specifications of such a job to execute the job at hand. 

He could borrow the following:

• Beam depth
• Slab depth
• Sizes of reinforcement
• Type of foundation etc.

But the very truth is that, this act is enormously bad, because these artisans are bereaved of the fact that; buildings, due to load complexities, architectural designs and the site location could have a great deal of variety in structural behaviours.

As such this is one of the reasons why we have the incessant building collapse in Nigeria today. 

It is an accepted fact therefore, that engineering is a combination of theory and practice. the teaching of the science of engineering is incomplete without the linkage of the theories to practical applications, especially in design.

I will therefore attempt to expose you to the basic concepts structural analysis and design (at a base level). you can appreciate the importance and relevance to the art of building.

REINFORCED CONCRETE

    Reinforced concrete is a combination of two different materials, namely; concrete and steel. Concrete has a considerable crushing strength, is durable, has good fire resistance but offers little or no strength in tension but fair in  shear. 
  On the other hand, steel has good tensile strength, but poor in resistance to fire (this is because it undergoes rapid loss of strength under high temperature) and very good both in shear and in compression.
The combination of these two therefore makes for a good tensile and compressive strength, durability and good resistance to fire and shear.- these of course are the basic requirement for a reinforced concrete.