MATERIALS ;

BRICKS : Brick walls are part of the UK national scene and are often accepted as meeting the functional requirements without question. A brick external wall will almost certainly utilize aerated concrete blocks for its inner leaf and might still need additional insulation in domestic construction if the blocks are only 100mm thick. A brick internal wall is not , however, subject to the extremes of internal and external temperatures and it is possible to use one bricks or one-hand-a-half brick party walls in terraced housing. The bonding of brick and blockwork is very much dependent on the sizes of the component and used , the form both usual and practical considerations. Mortar mixes and strength requirements will vary with the type of brick and block used but a common mix is 1 : 2 : 9 which means one part cement to two part lime to nine parts soft sand .

WOODS : Woods is a natural and has a broad range of physical properties because of the different characteristics of its many species . Softwood are generally strong in tension and compression in a direction parallel to the grain and weak when stressed perpendicularly to the grain . Wood is also weak in shear because of its tendency to split along the natural grain laminations . Wood is light and soft compared to most other structural materials and is easily shaped and fastened together . A minimum of material handling equipment is needed to erect wood structures because of their weight. It is also very versatile in terms of its adaptability to the making of geometric shapes and even nonlinear forms .

 Woods is often known as the forgiving material because of its apparent ability to sustain loads not accounted for when the structure was designated .

CONCRETE ; Concrete is a mixture of Portland cement , water , and fine and coarse aggregates . This plastic paste , when placed in forms or molds and cure, combines chemically to create a stone like product . When the optimum water / cement ratio has been attained, and the concrete is placed, care must be taken to prevent evaporation of the water before complete hydration has taken place. This what is meant by the terms curing. There are a number of ways to accomplish curing , the choices is largely based upon site conditions . The simplest method is to delay the stripping of the forms for a minimum of weeks. This is particularly effective for columns and deep structural members where little of the concrete surface is exposed.

I. Steel reinforcement: Concrete is used without reinforcement in some applications, such as mass foundations, where the only forces involved are compressive. Steel reinforcement greatly increase the structural capacity of the materials in any case where tensile forces are encountered. Since mild structural steel has an allowable working strength 22 000 psi, steel will represent a relatively small percentage of the mass of reinforced concrete. Aside from steel added for structural requirements, there is temperature steel, which is placed in the concrete to control expansion, contraction and the consequent cracking due to temperature changes. The amount of temperature steel required is a constant percentage of the area of concrete.

II. Reinforcement concrete : concrete is a man-made conglomerate stone composed of essentially 4 ingredients, Portland cement, water,sand and coarse aggregate. The cement and water combine to make a paste that binds the sand and stones together. Reinforced concrete beams actually have numerous minutes cracks which run at right angles to direction of major tensile stresses. The tensile forces at such locations are being taken completely by steel re-bars. Concrete is known as the formable or moldable structural materials,it is easy to make curvilinear members and surface with concrete. The best structural use of reinforced concrete, in terms of characteristics of the material, is in those structures requiring continuity and/or rigidity. These moment-resistant joints are such that many low-rise concrete buildings do not require a secondary bracing system for lateral loads. In essence, a concrete beam joins a concrete column very differently from the way steel and wood pieces join, and the sensitive designer will not ignore this difference. Concrete is naturally fireproof and needs no separate protection system. Because of its mass, it can also serve as an effective barrier to sound transmission Unfortunately, concrete is quite heavy and it is often noted that a concrete structure expends a large portion of its capacity merely carrying itself. Proper concrete replacement is also somewhat dependent upon the ambient weather conditions. Extremely high temperatures and more important, those below ( or near) freezing can make concrete work very difficult.

CEMENT : Cement is the setting agent of concrete, and the bulk of cement used in this country is Portland cement.

 Portland cement is made from chalk or limestone and clay, and is generally produced by the wet process. In this process,the 2 raw materials are washed, broken up and mixed with water to form a slurry. This slurry is then pumped into a steel rotary kiln, which is from 3 4m in diameter and up to 150m long and lined with refectory bricks. The alternative method for the preparation of Portland cement is the dry process. The main difference between this and the wet process is the reduction in the amount of water that has to be driven off in the kiln. A mixture of limestone and shale is used which is proportioned, ground and blended to form a raw meal of low moisture content.

STEEL : Steel is the strongest and stiffest building materials in common use today. Relative to wood and concrete , it is a high-tech material made by highly refined and controlled process. Structural steel has a uniformly high strength in tension and compression and is also very good in shear. Because of steels strength, the individual members of a frame are usually small in cross section and have very little visual mass. Steel is a linear material and can be economically made into a visual curve only by using a segmented geometry. A major advantages to structural steel is its need to be fireprotected in most applications. The making of steel requires large physical plants and a high capital outlay; and therefore relatively few countries of the world have extensive mill facilities. The cost of manufacturing, coupled with the cost of transportation, can make steel a relatively expensive material. Continuity in the connections is much harder to achieve in steel than in concrete and most building are constructed with simple connections or ones that are only partially moment-resistant.