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civil construction design 3

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cedpogi

Mechanical
Mar 3, 2015
2
good morning everyone,

i'm a mechanical engineer by profession but i have projects recently regarding to civil construction.
i would like to ask if there is a book for civil construction in which it has standard practices on how to construct houses.
for example that im looking for is the size of columns and its reinforcing steel and how much load it can carry, tie beam distance and its size.. etc.

i hope you can give me references to my inquiries.

best regards to everyone

an equation a day keeps us from trouble away :)
 
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Many civil engineer graduates can't design a house and you expect to design one with just a book. Structural design of a house is much, much more complicated than you think.
 
From your use of the English language, it appears that you are not a native speaker of English (though you use it well). [smile] And though your question is very general and nonspecific, I am assuming that your are working somewhere in Asia, given the structural system you asked about.
When I lived and worked in Thailand for over a decade, I became familiar with their residential and commercial construction practices with concrete frame buildings which have brick or block infills for the walls (and they are often plastered on both faces). I think that this must be the type of structural system you are asking about.

This system is no different than any other frame system, except that it is concrete, instead of steel. Additionally, since you are interested in residential construction, the loads for residences and small business buildings are usually lower than for heavy commercial or industrial structures. Other than that, the design principles are essentially the same. Depending on where you are in Asia, you definitely should take seismic loadings into account.

Accounting for the proper loads, including the seismic ones, takes a particular knowledge base, which is not typically gained by just reading a series of books. I suggest that you learn this process from an experienced structural designer in your area before you take on this design responsibility.

Good luck,

Dave

Thaidavid
 
main key in design (to me) is understanding load transfer.... proper transfer over loads and accounting for that in the design of individual members and components so they work properly in the system is key and sometimes not properly analyzed.

i.e. don't design a column as a "lean" column when it is actually part of your lateral force resisting system.... or a beam for bending only when it acts as a drag strut... connections... diaphragms... etc.

If you don't have any experience in structural design.... I would probably recommend subcontracting out the work initially at least until you can do some research and make sure you are comfortable with the concepts and codes... even then I'd be careful on how far you step outside your area of expertise.
 
I suggest looking for an on-line correspondence course on the subjects of Basic structural design; Construction of houses; and maybe building codes of your country.
 
One thing is structural design, other thing is construction practices.

About structural design if you have no background on it you should look for loads and mechanical behaviour of materials.
After it you go for the eurocodes, if it's about concrete look for the eurocode 2.

This is basically what students learn in civil engineer degrees, but beware, it takes a lot of patience to get along with.

How to construct is, altough related, a different theme. Look for the construction handbook by R. Chudley
 
A civil Engineer spends 4-5years in the University studying to become a civil engineer, after graduation, he spends addition 5-10years to master the skills to enable him take on a structure on his/her own.....
Building Design is divided into two... Structural analysis and structural design.... You can learn the design part because it's pretty straight forward but the structural analysis is why you actually have to attend a university.
 
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