Modern foundation types

Shallow foundations or footings are usually embedded about a meter into soil. One
common type is the spread footing which consists of strips or pads of concrete which
extend below the frost line and transfer the weight from walls and columns to the soil or
bedrock.
Another common type of shallow foundation is the slab-on-grade foundation where the
weight of the building is transferred to the soil through a concrete slab placed at the
surface. Slab-on-grade foundations can be reinforced mat slabs, which range from 25 cm
to several meters thick, depending on the size of the building, or post-tensioned slabs,
which are typically at least 20 cm for houses, and thicker for heavier structures.
A deep foundation is used to transfer the load of a structure down through the upper
weak layer of topsoil to the stronger layer of subsoil below. There are different types of
deep footings including impact driven piles, drilled shafts, caissons, helical piles, geo-
piers and earth stabilized columns. The naming conventions for different types of footings
vary between different engineers. Historically, piles were wood, later steel, reinforced
concrete, and pre-tensioned concrete.
A monopile foundation is a type of deep foundation which uses a single, generally
large-diameter, structural element embedded into the earth to support all the loads of a
large above-surface structure. A large number of monopile foundations have been utilized
in recent years for economically constructing fixed-bottom offshore wind farms in
shallow-water subsea locations.
Foundations are designed to have an adequate load
capacity with limited settlement by a geotechnical engineer, and the footing itself may be
designed structurally by a structural engineer. The primary design concerns are
settlement and bearing capacity. When considering settlement, total settlement and
differential settlement is normally considered. Differential settlement is when one part of
a foundation settles more than another part. This can cause problems to the structure the
foundation is supporting.

Structural load
Structural loads are forces, deformations, or accelerations applied to a structure or its
components. Loads cause stresses, deformations, and displacements in structures.
Assessment of their effects is carried out by the methods of structural analysis. Excess
load or overloading may cause structural failure, and hence such possibility should be
either considered in the design or strictly controlled. Mechanical structures, such as
aircraft, satellites, rockets, space stations, ships and submarines, have their own
particular structural loads and actions. Engineers often evaluate structural loads based
upon published regulations, contracts, or specifications. Accepted technical standards are
used for acceptance testing and inspection.
Dead loads are static forces that are relatively constant for an extended time. They
can be in tension or compression. Live loads are usually unstable or moving loads.
These dynamic loads may involve considerations such as impact, momentum, vibration
or slosh dynamics of fluids. An impact load is one whose time of application on a
material is less than one-third of the natural period of vibration of that material. Cyclic
loads on a structure can lead to fatigue damage or failure. These loads can

Curtain wall
A curtain wall system is an outer covering of a building in which the outer walls are
non-structural, but merely keep the weather out and the occupants in. As the curtain wall is
non-structural, it can be made of a lightweight material, reducing construction costs. When
glass is used as the curtain wall, a great advantage is that natural light can penetrate deeper
within the building. The curtain wall facade does not carry any dead load weight from the
building other than its own dead load weight. The wall transfers horizontal wind loads that
are incident upon it to the main building structure through connections at floors or
columns of the building. A curtain wall is designed to resist air and water infiltration, sway
induced by wind and seismic forces acting on the building and its own dead load weight
forces.
Curtain wall systems are typically designed with extruded aluminum members
although the first curtain walls were made of steel. The aluminium frame is typically in-
filled with glass, which provides an architecturally pleasing building as well as benefits
such as day-lighting. However, parameters related to solar gain control such as thermal
comfort and visual comfort are more difficult to control when using highly-glazed curtain
walls. Other common infills include stone veneer, metal panels, louvres and operable
windows or vents.
Curtain walls differ from store-front systems in that they are designed to span multiple
floors, and take into consideration design requirements such as thermal expansion and
contraction, building sway and movement, water diversion and thermal efficiency for cost-
effective heating, cooling, and lighting in the
building.
be repeated loadings on a structure or can be due to vibration.


Loads on architectural and civil engineering structures
Building codes require that structures be designed and built to safely resist all
actions that they are likely to face during their service life, while remaining fit for use.
Minimum loads are specified in these building codes for types of structures, geographic
locations, usage and materials of construction. Structural loads are split into categories
by their originating cause. In terms of the actual load on a structure, there is no
difference between dead or live loading, but the split occurs for use in safety
calculations or ease of analysis on complex models.
The dead load includes loads that are relatively constant over time, including the
weight of the structure itself, and immovable fixtures such as walls, plasterboard or
carpet. Roof is also a dead load. Dead loads are also known as permanent loads. The
magnitude of dead loads is known with greater certainty, as they are closely linked to
density and quantity of the construction materials. These have a low variance, and the
designer is normally responsible for specifying these components.
Live loads, or imposed loads, are temporary, of short duration, or a moving load.
These dynamic loads may involve considerations such as impact, momentum, vibration,
slosh dynamics of fluids and material fatigue. Live loads, sometimes also referred to as
probabilistic loads, include all the forces that are variable within the object's normal
operation cycle not including construction or environmental loads. Roof and floor live
loads are produced during maintenance by workers, equipment and materials, and
during the life of the structure by movable objects and people. Bridge live loads are
produced by vehicles traveling over the deck of the bridge.
masonry, concrete or plasterboard. The beams may be cased in concrete, plasterboard or
sprayed with a coating to insulate it from the heat of the fire or it can be protected by a
fire resistant ceiling construction. Asbestos was a popular material for fireproofing steel
structures up until the early 1970s, before the health risks of asbestos fibres were fully
understood.
The exterior "skin" of the building is anchored to the frame using a variety of
construction techniques and following a huge variety of architectural styles. Bricks,
stone, reinforced concrete, architectural glass, sheet metal and simply paint have been
used to cover the frame to protect the steel from the weather.

Steel frame
Steel frame usually refers to a building technique with a "skeleton frame" of vertical
steel columns and horizontal I-beams, constructed in a rectangular grid to support the
floors, roof and walls of a building which are all attached to the frame. The development
of this technique made the construction of the skyscraper possible.
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The rolled steel "profile or cross section of steel columns takes the shape of the letter
"I". The two wide flanges of a column are thicker and wider than the flanges on a beam, to
better withstand compressive stress in the structure. Square and round tubular sections of
steel can also be used, often filled with concrete. Steel beams are connected to the columns
with bolts and threaded fasteners, and historically connected by rivets. The central "web"
of the steel I-beams is often wider than a column web to resist the higher bending moments
that occur in beams.
Wide sheets of steel deck can be used to cover the top of the steel frame as a "form" or
corrugated mold below a thick layer of concrete and steel reinforcing bars. Another
popular alternative is a floor of precast concrete flooring units with some form of concrete
topping. Often in office buildings, the final floor surface is provided by some form of
raised flooring system with the void between the walking surface and the structural floor
being used for cables and air handling ducts.
The frame needs to be protected from fire because steel softens at high temperature and
this can cause the building to partially collapse. In the case of the columns, this is usually
done by encasing it in some form of fire resistant structure such as