STRUCTURAL REQUIREMENTS IN A RESIDENTIAL APARTMENTS

Colonel. P Nallathambi (Retd)1

Introduction.

An Architect designs a residential building to meet the client requirements, functional aspects,
vastu requirement and aesthetic criteria . Finally the structural requirements are considered for
the building. It is difficult to satisfy all the requirements without compromising on each other.
Though functional and beauty aspects of a building are necessary but Architect and the Client of
the building should not compromise the structure requirements for any reason.

Needs of a client/owner of a residential building.

An owner of the building would always wants to maximize the benefits of land available to him
because the cost of land is very high. Even though the government authorities (CMDA/
Municipal Corporation) have laid down the rules, owner will, still try to violate and increase the
construction area above the ground floor / stilt floor. However, the Government officials may
visit the site and pass the construction . Hence owner has to follow the rules strictly as per the
norms such as set back area, number of floors, etc. But client may want to extend the built up
area in subsequent floors as much as possible . In some case, the owner may want to build the
building from edge of his land boundary by touching with neighbours building wall. The above
requirement will results in eccentric footing and floating column above ground floor/stilt floor,
which is not advisable from structural engineer point of view.

Owner of the building is always interested to minimize the material cost. If steel and concrete
quantities are less then he will be very happy. This is possible when all beams are connected to
columns and form a proper framed structure. When flow of load from slab to beam , beam to
column and to foundation is not smooth then the steel quantity and RC member size will be high,
which results to high cost of material for the same building.

The owner of the building is normally reluctant to test the soil which may be costing 25,000 to
30,000. Client leaves it to structural engineer to decide and prepare foundation design . Design
of foundation without testing the soil may cause foundation failure or settlement cracks even
during later stage. Repair of foundation failure is difficult and costly. Hence, one should not take
risk in foundation of the building.

1
Colonel. P Nallathambi. ME(Structural Engg), MBA, FIE, Structural Consultant, M/S Sakthi Consultancy,
PH Road, Chennai 600 084. Mobile: 094440 20706, Web Site : www.sakthiconsultancy.com
Needs of an architect in planning of buildings.

There are many professionals and trades are involved in actual construction of buildings. The architect is
responsible for the design of a building with particular regard to its appearance and environmental
qualities, and makes sure the building looks good. But the structural engineer ensures that it will stand up.

Therefore, Architectural design must respect various constraints such as Functionality, Aesthetics and
Economy . Functionality is essential for a building to satisfy the purposes for which the structure is
constructed. The architect often imposes his aesthetic concerns on the Engineer. This in turn can place
many limitations on the structural system. Finally economy, it should be kept in mind that the two largest
components of a structure are labors and materials. Design cost is comparatively negligible.

Architects plan the buildings functionally good, meeting all vastu requirements and ensures that
interior is excellent and elevation is very good. Invariably, car park of the apartment is planned
at the stilt /ground floor of the building. After considering all the requirements of functional ,
vastu and interior then it was given to structural requirements. ie after all the other needs are
taken care before considering the strength requirement.

As the car park is planned on the ground floor/ stilt parking, the car will need more space for turn
around in a medium size apartments. Columns are spread apart to satisfy the parking
requirements.

Once the column is raised above the ground floor , the layout of floors are different and columns
are located inside the rooms. Hence, floating columns are adopted to move the column towards
wall. Beams are forced to connect to each other and are not in a position to connect them to
column. Provision of balcony, sunken floor and stair/ lift arrangement also restricting the beam
to column connection. While considering the interior decoration, beams are restricted to run
inside the room and planned to get merged with the wall width (even it is 200mm thick). With
all, the building is constructed in an unconventional ways and violating the seismic design
requirements.

What is Structural Engineering?

The structure of a building is responsible for maintaining the shape of the building even under
the influence of the forces, loads and other environmental factors to which it is subjected. It is
important that the structure as a whole does not fall down, break or deform to an unacceptable
degree when subjected to such forces or loads.

The study of structures involves analysis of the forces and stresses and the designing of suitable
components to with stand them. A structural engineer solves the problem and ensuring that a
building is adequate enough in terms of strength, stability, serviceability, etc. for its intended use.
Structural understanding

The basic function of a structure is to transmit loads from the position of application of the load to the
point of support and thus to the foundations in the ground. Any structure must satisfy the following
criteria:

(1) Aesthetics (it should look nice).

(2) Economy (it should be affordable by the client).

(3) Ease of maintenance.

(4) Durability. This means that the materials used must be resistant to corrosion, spalling, chemical attack,
etc.

(5) Fire resistance. While few materials can completely resist the effects of fire, it is important for a
building to resist fire long enough so that its occupants can be safely evacuated. In order to ensure that
the structure is fire resistance, we need to develop an understanding and awareness of how the structure
works.

Safety and serviceability

There are two main requirements of any structure: it must be safe and it must be serviceable. ‘Safe’ means
that the structure should not collapse – either in whole or in part. ‘Serviceable’ means that the structure
should not deform unduly under the effects of deflection, cracking or vibration.

Safety

A structure must carry the expected loads without collapsing as a whole and without any part of it
collapsing. Safety in this respect depends on the estimated load carrying capacity of the structure and the
current strength of the materials used in the building .

Serviceability

A structure must be designed in such a way that it doesn’t deflect or crack unduly in use. It is difficult or
impossible to completely eliminate these things – the important thing is that the deflection and cracking
are kept within permissible limits. It must also be ensured that vibration does not have an adverse effect
on the structure – this is particularly important in parts of buildings containing plant or machinery.

When you walk over the floor of a building, and feel the floor is deflecting underneath your feet, then
you have to be concerned about the integrity of the structure. Excessive deflection does not necessarily
mean that the floor is about to collapse, but deflection must be ‘controlled’ and kept within permissible
limits. Take another example, if a lintel above a doorway deflects too much, it may cause warping of the
door frame below it and, consequently, the door itself may not open or close properly. Cracking is ugly
and may or may not be indicative of a structural problem. But it may, in itself, lead to problems. For
example, if cracking occurs on the outside face of a reinforced concrete wall then rain water may
penetrate and cause corrosion of the steel reinforcement within the concrete.
Responsibilities of a Structural Designer.

A structural designer should create a functional, economic and most importantly , safe structure
for the public to enjoy. The following are to be considered during structural design of a building:

(a) Proper foundation to be designed based on soil report. Avoid eccentric or floating
column at the foundation level. If not possible, even extra cost is incurred , connect the eccentric
footings to the nearest footing and make it combined with strap beam arrangement.

(b) Interact with architect and plan the structure layout from stability point of view. i.e Plan
a frame layout which is connected by beams and columns before dividing the floor area for
functional requirement. Proper connection of beam to column is very important during seismic
loading. Secondary beams can to be planned to meet the other requirements. Stability is very
essential for any good structure to transfer the forces smoothly to the ground.

(c) As far as possible , floating columns are to be avoided. Floating column will not allow
smooth flow of force from beam to column and foundation . It produces heavy moment during
earthquake and cause damages to the building.

(d) Concealed beams are adopted to support roof and connect to columns. Concealed beam
in a slab has no capacity to behave as regular beam. 125mm thick slab with 25mm cover can
have a maximum gap between top and bottom reinforcement of 55mm, which is insufficient to
provide beam action. However, it can minimize stress concentration and useful under half brick
wall. Therefore, it is recommended that concealed beam concept should not be considered under
full wall load or as a connecting member between two columns.

(e) Beam width should not be restricted only to wall width. Beam width should satisfy code
requirements, as per seismic code IS 13920, the width of a beam shall be 300mm beam for a
beam length more than 5m. Interact with architect and permit the beams to run in side the rooms
if required for better performance during seismic load.

(f) Structural engineer should advise the client to preserve the copy of structural details and
use it during any addition/ alternation to the building in future . Adding the extra floor without
knowing the structural strength is not advisable. Many buildings have failed due to over loading.

Conclusion.

There are many multistoried buildings have failed and collapsed in various cities. Owner and
architect of a building should give equal importance to the safety and strength of the building
and allow the structural engineer to design a structure to with stand all forces including seismic
load.