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Category 1: Buildings
Allen Court Block 2, is a relatively straightforward RC
framed building. Up to 8 storeys high with 250 mm
thick reinforced concrete flat slabs and generally
600 x 200 mm columns. The bottom levels of columns,
up from foundations to underside of 1st, have to be
designed to cater for impact loading, as some of the
lower level is to be accessed by vehicles, therefore we
increased the thickness of these columns by 50 mm
for increased cover. The size and shape of the building
is long and narrow, we therefore had to ensure there
were enough shear walls for stability and to counteract
any wind loadings that may occur. There are several
concrete balconies at each level, these are supported
using a thermal break system, and the design of these
balconies has also been carried out on Scia Engineer.
We used Scia Engineer to design the flat slabs,
column loads, slab moments, areas of steel and
stability in the core walls. This gave us enough
information to design the foundation loadings, to which
we had a tight deadline to enable the client to procure
the site.
Block 2 is 1 of 3 blocks, Block 1 is similar in
construction to Block 2 and Block 3 is a loadbearing
masonry construction, based on traditional build and
piled ground beams for the foundations.
We use the Scia Engineer program to enable us to
mark up the steel areas for reinforcement, we get our
reinforcement drawings for larger projects done out
of house, to enable us to concentrate closer on the
design. We use the steel areas combined with the slab
moments to give us the required reinforcement to the
slab area. The column loads help us to determine the
amount of punching shear required. The column loads
can easily be differentiated into serviceability loads for
foundation design and ultimate loads for column and
punching shear designs.
We have worked very closely with the architect and
main client on this project, to enable us to forward our
design principles with accuracy and speed, whilst still
ensuring correct design procedures. We schemed
up and tendered for this project several months ago,
and used the Scia program to back up our tendered
estimates at the early stages, and implement any
changes, client or architectural, for the construction
issue.
This project has not been started on site currently, and
a start on site date for May 2013 has been imposed.
We are preparing any necessary design and detailed
information to ensure that the start on site date is
achievable and that any delays that may occur are
kept to a minimum.
Allen Court Block 2 - Ealing, United Kingdom
Software: Scia Engineer
