ADI 305: STRUCTURES

Classification of structures
-The structural elements of a building or interior must be designed to resist excessive
deformation, or collapse that result from active forces.

-Good resistance is guaranteed by ensuring every group of structure is closely paid attention to
during design and construction.

-There are basically three categories of structures:

a) Vertical structures
b) Horizontal structures and
c) Framed structures.

A. Vertical structures-They include:

1. ‘Post’-type structures such as columns of buildings, chair and table legs, newel posts of
staircases, etc.
-If poorly designed or constructed, these post type members could fail due to crushing
when an applied force crushes the material of the post.
-They can also fail due to buckling where excess force applied can cause the material to
bend.
-Basically the ability of a post to resist crushing or buckling depends on the following:
a) The cross-sectional area of the post(the greater the area the greater the
resistance to crushing);
b) The nature of the material from which the post is made(the higher the
compressive strength of the material, the higher its resistance to crushing)
c) The ability of a post structure to resist buckling depends on its slender
ratio( the ration of the height of the height of the post to the thickness of the
post. calculated by h/t=slender ratio
 Therefore the greater the slender ratio the smaller the resistance to buckling. Often
post type members are made of tubular cross-section in which the material of such
posts is moved away from the center of the post. This increases its effective thickness.
 When a post structure is fixed at the top alone and the bottom is left free, buckling
(e.g. a chair leg which is fixed at the seat joint and free at the part touching the floor)
may occur, but in a different way as that of a column fixed on both sides i.e. joint at
the roof and joint at the floor.
 To reduce buckling other structural members joined to the post can be introduced.
For example chair rails can be introduced at adjacent angle to the chair leg which
would also limit the likely movement of the chair leg /seat frame joint.
  Sometimes forces acts directly on the centerline of a post, which results in
compressive stress in the material of the post.
 Sometimes, however the force is applied in an ‘eccentric’ manner (off-center). If the
degree of eccentricity exceeds one-sixth of the thickness of the post then the side of
the post nearer the force will be in compression, whilst the side of the post nearer the
force will be in tension.
 If the material of the post is brittle (that is good in compression but poor in tension)
then the post could fail through excessive tension on the side furthest from the force.

2. ‘Wall’ type members: includes for e.g. external walls of buildings, internal load bearing
partitions, vertical boards forming sides of cabinets, etc.

 Just like post structures wall type structures can also fail by crushing or buckling.
Crushing in a wall type member could be prevented by:

i) Constructing the wall with a material of a sufficiently high compressive strength;

ii) Increasing the thickness of the wall to prevent buckling as it occurs where wall are
too slender thus, excessive high slender ratio.
iii) Reducing the effective height by ensuring good fixings at the top and bottom of the
wall structure.
iv) Increasing the thickness of the wall and reducing the effect of applied force.
vi) Building corners into the wall or incorporating buttresses into the wall structure.
vii) Introducing other structural members which intersect the wall-type structure thus,
reduce the effective height.

B. Horizontal structures – include:

1. Beam-type members- for example: lintels for windows and doors, some rails used in
chairs and cabinets construction etc.
 Beams supported on both ends can also bend when they experience forces applied. The
top part will be foreshortened (due to compressive stress in the material) and the bottom
part became elongated (due to tensile stress in the material of the beam)
Diagram to illustrate the above:

 The greater the depth of a beam member, the greater its ability to resist bending.
Since the greatest resistance to stress occurs towards the bottom and top of the beam,
beam members are sometimes designed so that:
i. They are deep in relation to their breath;
ii. Most of the material of the beam is concentrated in the stress-resisting areas at the
top and bottom of the beam.
iii. To avoid deflection which is a measure of the degree to which a member of
structure will ‘sag’. Whilst a beam could be designed to resist bending without
 collapsing, it could be unsuitable if excessive deflection took place. Excessive
deflection on a beam may look unsightly plus cause damage of material fixed on
the beam such as cracking of plaster etc.
Diagram illustrating a deflection:

 Deflection can be reduced by reducing the load and reducing the span or the beam. It
can also be reduced by increasing the stiffness of the material and the stiffness of the
cross-sectional shape of the beam.
 Deflection is also affected by the nature of beam supports in the case of simply supported
beam deflection occurs throughout the beams length. Most beams are fixed at either ends
in which case deflection only takes place on a limited part of the beam.

iv. Shear (tendency for vertical sliding to occur as a result of bending) can occur in
beams and this can be avoided by using a resistant materials. otherwise resulting
tensile and compressing forces would cause diagonal shear:

A diagram illustrating a shear

2. Slab-type members have examples such as roof and floor slabs, worktops for cabinets
and shelves. A slab might be likened to a very broad and shallow beam, and in some
respects certain slabs behave in a very similar manner.
 Slab type structures might span between two supports when the slab is as a ‘one way’ slab.
One way slab behave in similar fashion to beams. When an active force is applied in a
one way slab, compression will occur at the top and tension in the bottom of the slab, due
to the effect of bending.
 Slab type structures span between two sets of supports arranged in a square or rectangular
fashion is known as a ‘two-way’ slab. When force is applied at the top of this square slab
bending will take place in both axes of the slab in both directions. The effect of bending
in a rectangular slab will be different in that bending would occur along the short axis.
Diagram illustrating the above:
 Deflection also affects slab members and the degree of deflection depends on the following
factors:
i. Size of span and size of applied force ( the greater the span and force the greater
the deflection). The span could be reduced by provision of inter-mediate
supports.
ii. Stiffness of the material ( the greater the e value the smaller the deflection).

C. Framed structures- a frame is a structural element composed of at least three members

which are joined together. Sometimes the weight of a structure made of solid elements
can cause problems such as for example:
  In case, the weight of the slab itself could cause the structure to bend or cause the supports
to crush, buckle or overturn, it is always necessary to reduce the weight of structural
elements, by use of a frame.
 There are two categories of framed structures and they include: framed vertical members
and framed horizontal members.

a) Framed vertical members- Find a diagram that illustrates a simple frame for a wall-
type structure, which would be suitable for supporting the end of a cabinet.
 If excessive active force is applied to a frame, the corner joints would act like hinges, the
frame would deform to a parallelogram shape. This effect is referred to as ‘racking’.)
This effect can be overcome by stiffening the joint or bracing the frame.
Diagram of a racking

 If the joints were stiffened by use of gussets, the joints would be better equipped to resist
movement, although an excessive force would cause bending in vertical frame members.
 Bracing of the frame can be achieved by either fixing a sheet of stiff material securely to
the face of the frame, or by using diagonal braces between opposite corners of the frame.
If an active force is applied the struts would be in compression, and would resist the
tendency of the frame to rack. The use of struts that divides a frame up into a series of
triangles.
 Triangles are good structural shapes that are resistant to racking. The frames of large
structural elements are usually divided up into triangles for this reason.
Diagram illustrating strut
b) A framed horizontal members- framed horizontal member usually uses efficient
structural shape of the triangle. For example the roof trusses usually use this
principle, in which case the triangular shaper of the truss is subdivided into a series of
smaller triangles by use of struts (compression members) and ties (tension members).
 An example of triangulation in a horizontal slab-type member is the ‘space deck’
which is used for roof structures as indicated in the figure below, the structure
consists of a series of inverted pyramid shaped frames linked together by fixing
together adjacent sides..
 The space deck structure provides an extremely lightweight two-way slab, which
could be supported by as little as one post at each corner.

Diagram illustrating a space deck