Essential Aspects in Construction - Essay Example

Essential Aspects in Construction The discussion of the aspects under consideration will categorically be grouped into two classes, where the first will be the building components and types and the second section will handle the failure modes. 1. Building Components and types Introduction The necessity of achieving the final goal of staging up the primary desired building goes alongside the ultimate design and outlining the components as well as the types that are supposed to be used in the process. Construction projects demands enough supply of the building materials and at the same time, the most satisfying labor force, which will see through the construction process to its final or completion point. The most basic materials include the bars, concrete, the roofing materials, and pipes. Types include the steel type, plastic type, and other significant alloys (American Society of Concrete Contractors, & American Concrete Institute, 2009). Building Team For any successful construction, it is apparent that there must have been a strong team behind. The building team, however, comprises of the experts, semi-skilled labourers, and even the non-skilled labourers. Members falling in the categories mentioned above play different significant roles at the construction site. To mention a few, the team comprises of the architects , designers, project managers, surveyors, planning consultants, structural engineers, service engineers, quantity surveyor, civil engineer an d civil estimators. Their roles are as explained below: Architect: this is a person who is dimensionally trained and licensed to design, plan as well as oversee the ultimate construction of buildings. The primary role of an architect is to make sure that he or she designs a concept that meets the requirements of a particular client under consideration. Quantity surveyor: this is a professional worker whose specialization lies in the construction industry and he is majorly concerned with the costs of construction and the contracts. Civil engineer: is a specialist who deals with the application of planning, constructing, designing, maintaining, as well as operating the infrastructures and at the same time, protecting the public, the environmental health and improving the infrastructures in existence. Project manager: is a person who deals with the project management. His role is to plan, execute and close the project if need be. Civil estimator: is a construction professional who essentially bids on the civil project that have already gone to tender. Structural engineers: deals with analyzing, designing, planning and researching on the structural components accompanied with the structural systems meant to achieve the design goals and at the same time, ensuring safety and the comfort of the users. Design Process The design process begins all the way from the growth of the design team. This entails developing a team comprising several designers who are competent enough in handling the task. The second aspect in the design process revolves around establishing the need. This demands the details on analysis of the business needs, the staff requirements and finally, the client relationship. Establishing the need also comprises identifying and describing the business needs, establishing the business case, preparing a strategic brief, undertaking the feasibility studies, carrying out the options of appraisals, and finally, preparing the initial project brief (Carpenter, Hoffman, & Badanes, n.d.). The third step in the design process revolves around selection of the designers. The designers can be selected basin on the recommendation, the reputation, the research and interview, the open competition and the existing relationship of the framework agreement. The concept design forms the fourth step, in which the creative response to the previous project brief is put under consideration. The design concept entails the outline specifications, schedules of accommodation, a planning strategy, the cost plan, procurement options, and finally the build ability and the construction logistics. The fifth step is the detailed design that describes the main components of the entire building and how they can be fixed together. It comprises of the overall layout, the landscape, operational flows, the horizontal and the vertical circulation routes, room data sheets, building services and the safety strategy. Finally, production information forms the last step, where drawings, specification, and the bills of quantities are placed under consideration (Carpenter, Hoffman, & Badanes, n.d.). Site Investigations This can be considered as the entire process of gathering information on ground conditions that might be relevant in designing and construction on a defined site. The desk study entails checking the existing records, which indicate the probable ground conditions as well as the problems that might be posed. The information is necessary and it is kept as a reference for the entire construction process (American Society of Concrete Contractors, & American Concrete Institute, 2009). 2 Failure Modes Introduction Failure can sometimes be understood as the structural integrity and failure, which is taken as an aspect of engineering that deals with the entire ability of the structure to support a particular designed load. The ability must withstand the breaking, tearing apart, as well as collapsing, which can generally be considered as the study of breakage. Different failures are normally brought about by different aspects under construction. This includes the wrong choice of the material, instability, the manufacturing errors, use of the defective materials and finally lack of consideration of the unpredictable problems. It is of significance to understand the failure modes in construction so that they can be taken care of during the entire process of construction. However, material failure can be caused by different conditions. Behavior of the materials under fire conditions and other related conditions is of great importance because it enables the engineers to establish a more necessitated design that will withstand these conditions. Behavior of Materials under Fire Conditions The physical and chemical properties of different material types determine their behavior under different conditions. The exposure of these materials to such conditions might either pose a positive or negative impact on the material. Heating and tension conditions are the most outstanding conditions that different types of materials are exposed to. Materials under consideration include plastics, concrete, wood and steel (Schottke, 2014). Behavior of Concrete under Fire Conditions Concrete is naturally fire resistive. This is because it is not flammable or conducts the heat well. This is the reason as to why concrete is used for insulating other building materials from fire. It must be noted that concrete has the lowest thermal expansion and it therefore loses no strength under extreme temperatures. However, under critical fire conditions, concrete can collapse resulting to structure destruction (Schottke, 2014). Behavior of Steel under Fire Conditions Steel is the preferable strongest building material around the world. It is an alloy of both iron and carbon, which comprises the most desirable properties. The outstanding properties makes steel to be less resistive to fire. It is considered to be a good conductor of heat and it therefore displays a tendency of expanding and at the same time, lose strength. This lose in strength of steel normally leads to collapse due to failure of steel structure (Schottke, 2014). Behavior of Wood under Fire Conditions Both soft and hard woods are significantly used in construction. This is because both play different roles in the entire process of staging a building. The most outstanding feature of wood products revolves around high combustibility. Wood ignites at relatively low temperatures and thereby gradually consumed by fire. This means that at extremely heat conditions, wood is weakened and therefore leads to the collapse of the construction. However, fire-retardant-treated wood is essentially used to improve the degree of fire resistance in wood. Behavior of Plastics under Fire Conditions Plastics are normally synthetic materials that are essentially used in a wide range of products. They can be transparent, opaque or even translucent. The combustibility of the plastics greatly varies with the type of plastic and the nature of the heat source. However, a wide variety of plastics produces smoke and at the same time, releases toxic gases during the process of burning. The thermoplastic materials usually melt and drip at relatively high temperatures. At relatively low temperatures, plastics are weakened and pose a dramatic decrease in strength. Failure Modes There are several modes of failure that are relatively associated with the frame behavior. This includes: The beam behavior: it is commonly expected that beam are to undergo large elastic rotations at targeted plastic hinges locations. They are expected in weakened portions of the entire beam, reduced beam section, or even within the large gravity moments. In this case, failure modes include lateral torsion and local buckling (Stamatis, 2003). Beam-to-column connections: this may take various forms of failure forms, which includes fracture around welds, fracture in highly strained fracture material, and fracture weld access holes. Joint panel zone behavior: failure modes associated with this kind of frame behavior include the column flange bending, web buckling and web crippling. Column behavior: the purpose in this case entails keeping the inelastic deformations out of existence so as to minimize the detrimental impacts of extreme axial loads on the ultimate bending behavior. The column behavior experiences the excessive local buckling as well as the lateral torsion buckling. In addition, the flexural buckling of the column is also experienced at perceptive degree. Column bases: the failure modes rely on the connection established between the foundation and the column. They include fracture in base parts, anchorage stretching, local as well as the lateral torsion buckling especially when the inelastic deformations are entirely concentrated above the base connection (Stamatis, 2003). Details on failure modes are very important in that the design can take into account the prevailing conditions such that any failure mode can be taken care of. This necessitates the prerequisite study of the site before construction, so that the client can be advised on the best way or the best design to consider in construction of the intended building (Stamatis, 2003). Signs of Collapse Taking precautions before the risk occurrence plays a significant safety role. This means that one has to be observant on the signs of collapse in case of a building (Dunn, 2010). However, it must be noted that under signs of collapse, various building components are placed under consideration and this includes the walls, floors, ceilings, the trusses, and the roofing. However, the few considered components are discussed below: Conditions of the Walls Bulges and the cracks on the walls are normally considered as the ultimate signs of imminent structural collapse. The building will no longer support the weight due to cracks, which serves as an indication of weakness. In addition, the smoke and water can possibly push through the cracks, which can as well serve as a sign of a substantial fatigue (Dunn, 2010). Floors and Ceilings Sagging floors as well as roofs is a significant sign of a building collapse. However, this may happen unnoticed and may cause abrupt collapse of the entire building. It is advisable to check on the conditions of the floor as well as the ceiling. References AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CONCRETE CONTRACTORS, & AMERICAN CONCRETE INSTITUTE. (2009). The contractor's guide to quality concrete construction. St. Louis, MO, American Society of Concrete Contractors. DUNN, V. (2010). Collapse of burning buildings: a guide to fireground safety. Tulsa, Okla, PennWell. STAMATIS, D. H. (2003). Failure mode and effect analysis: FMEA from theory to execution. Milwaukee, Wisc, ASQ Quality Press. SCHOTTKE, D. (2014). Fundamentals of fire fighter skills. CARPENTER, W. J., HOFFMAN, D., & BADANES, S. (n.d.). Learning by building design and construction in architectural education. New York, Van Nostrand Reinhold. Read More