Which structural framing systems and materials are most commonly used in the United States for residences? For office buildings?
What factors explain why those dominate?
◦ Why did you choose your system, and what did it cost you?
Wood framing dominates the construction of residential buildings in the United States. It is cheap, the material is more accessible, easier to construct and it has the lowest carbon footprint for mid-rise residential buildings.
Steel framing is the most popular for office buildings. This is because it allows for a long span so you can create floors with open plans which is desirable for office buildings. It has a fast erection because it is pre-fabricated off-site so this speeds up the construction process.
I chose the wood timber post and beam for the residential units and the concrete for the commercial unit. This was because my commercial building on the ground floor was concrete and it did not require an open floor plan so the columns within the floor plan were acceptable. The concrete also gives a good structural foundation for the bottom of the building. The upper floors were wood and my building was layered but had similar floorplans on the middle and upper layers so having columns that went through both layers was easy and efficient. Timber is also the cheapest option and has the lowest carbon footprint. This matters to me because my building is tall and wide in an area of low-rise buildings, so its environmental impact is larger and material choice is more important. Timber is also quite light so it will reduce foundation loads.
Due to choosing the wood timber post and concrete I will need to seek fire protection which will be an additional cost
You sized members by judgment rather than analysis.
◦ What did you base your first guess on?
◦ Why is it safer to guess large and shrink than to guess small and grow?
◦ At what point in a real project does the engineer take over from the guess?
Design teams link and share models rather than working in one file.
Linking means that each person works on a separate model, and these models together make up one project. The models are then joined together afterwards.
Advantages of linking are the project could move faster because everyone is working on different parts of the project at the same time rather than waiting for each section to be done before proceeding to the next part. It is also easier to clean up mistakes. If a mistake is made in one section, you only have to fix that section rather than the entire model. Additionally, everyone doesn't need to be an expert on every section of the project. Each person can be an expert on their own section.
However, the disadvantages of linking is that separate sections made by different people may not line up when they are eventually linked together. Different sections could also be positioned or oriented differently than intended. Also if someone makes any orientation changes to their own section (i.e. the road of the house shouldn't connect to the house north but should now connect to the house south) and doesn't alert the others, the linked sections would no longer match as it should and no one will know.
It is good for the team to decide on shared coordinates at the start of the projects so everyone is aware of where every section of the overall model needs to be. This will ensure all sections line up at the end. If this does not happen, sections may have been created to different coordinates and they will all have to be redone before the construction stage which would be time consuming and may cost money.
Not every clash is a problem.
On what basis did you classify a clash as an issue versus not an issue?
◦ Who should have authority to close a clash on a real project?
You identify a clash based on whether the elements are meant to intersect or not for example the column intersecting with the furniture is an issue but the columns intersecting with a floor level isn't as it is meant to do that. Minor overlaps may also be acceptable. The project manager should have the authority to close a clash having looked at both architectural and structural models and ensuring there is no real issue.
Your beam depths just constrained next week's ductwork.
◦ Where in your building is the ceiling plenum now tightest?
◦ What would you give up to get it back?
◦ Should the structural engineer have consulted the mechanical engineer before setting spans?