Good question.
I too had the same point of view as BigH. But then things turned around when I decided not to concern myself with my competition. It is pointless to accept all the responsibilities that come with being an engineer only to be compensated at the same hourly rate as the local...
Regarding the U factor, they apparently replacing this with two factors in the 2000 National Building Code. We're all in for some fun! As far as the reason why we need the factors; the reason is that the seismologists that do all the earthquake research think that we should work with the...
trainguy
You slipped in your response to Cottageguy while I was typing mine. You are correct in saying that you do want the braces to yield to limit the force. However, for tension only braces, after they yield during the first cycle, (and yield further after successive cycles), there is an...
No, wind does not govern in a lot of cases. If you are talking about British Columnbia, for sure, earthquake will govern. If you are talking about Quebec and Ottawa, most likely, earthquake will govern. If you are talking about large 'big box' buildings, earthquake will probably govern even...
Thanks trainguy
Your response is consistent with the recommendations of the CISC. However, as we know, tension only plate braces have been found to be terrible bracing members for earthquake loading. After one cycle of loading, the plates have stretched. It goes down hill from there.
There...
Using the National Building Code of Canada, we calculate a value of Ve, which represents the force that a building would experience if it were designed to respond elastically. The code then allows us to reduce this load by a factor of R, which is a number that represents the ability of the...