Building Construction - Understanding Loads and Loading - Fire Engineering

12/3/2017 Building Construction: Understanding Loads and Loading - Fire Engineering
Building Construction: Understanding

Loads and Loading
06/01/2010
BY JAY D. MICHAEL
Members of the fire service are constantly encouraged to study and understand building construction.
Initial fire training building construction classes range from several hours to a little over a day,
sometimes with a site visit. The types or classifications from Type I to Type V are reviewed, and then a
quiz or exam is given. At the end of your initial training, a few questions on the exam pertain to building
construction. Over the years, you review the basic material, take more classes, and move up the ranks.
Soon, you are telling the younger firefighters to know building construction. Are you just repeating
what you are hearing, or do you understand how buildings are constructed?
(1) This wood column is in compression; the horizontal beams or girders transmit the load imposed on
the beam or girder to the column. (Photos by Paul Dansbach.)
The late Francis Brannigan used to implore us: Know your enemy; the building is your enemy.1 Many
times, he reminded us that the structure is merely a gravity-resistance system. Firefighting strategy
needs to change once the fire transitions from the burning contents to a burning structure.
(2) The bottom chord of this heavy timber wood truss is in tension. As a load is imposed on the top
chord of the truss, the top chord will be in compression and the bottom chord will be in tension.
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We must understand loads and the forces present on the various building components and structural
members. If we can get a basic understanding of the normal loading and forces on building
components and structural members, we would be better prepared to evaluate the safety of our
operation, whether it involved fire, collapse, or wind damageor any other time our response takes us
into or around structures.
FORCES, LOADS, AND STRESS/STRAIN
Internal and external forces act on structural components. An external force is commonly referred to as
a load; an internal force is a stress. Another way to look at it is action and reaction. The load is the
action; the stress is the reaction. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. The load
applied to a column would place the column in compression; conversely, a load hanging from a rod
would place the rod in tension. Strain is the deformation of a structural member because of stress
within the member. Stress is usually measured in terms of pounds per square inch or pounds per
square foot. Strain is measured in the percentage of elongation that happens when the material is
tensioned.
(3) This exterior wood-frame wall is a bearing wall. The wall supports the floors as evidenced by the
floor joists arranged at a 90 angle to the wall. The walls of the lower floors will also support the floor
above and potentially the roof of the structure.
Compression is a crushing force. In compression tests, the material is compressed until it crushes or
crumbles. Tension is a pulling force that is trying to make the building material longer. In tension tests,
enough force is applied to pull the material apart. Shear attempts to make the building materials or
structural components slide past one another. In shear tests, force is applied to pull the materials apart.
Use of a concrete anchor is an example of shear resistance. When the anchor is placed in a hole in the
concrete, a bolt or screw is inserted and tightened. The tightening causes the anchor to swell. Shear
resistance keeps the anchor in the concrete. The common nail is another type of building fastener that
resists the forces of shear. A gang-nail plate used on a lightweight wooden truss somewhat resists
shear.
(4) The wood floor joists (beams) are supported by the steel girder by bearing on the top flange of the
girder.
Structural members that are under a load must change shape. If the member does not change shape,
no load is present. The force applied causes this change in shape. In most structures, the eye will not
detect the change in shape when the structural member is carrying a normal load.
STRUCTURAL MEMBERS
The basic structural members are columns, girders, beams, floor decking, and roof decking. Walls are
a part of structural members. They are sometimes load bearing, although most of the time the rules of
columns apply to walls just as girder/beam rules apply to floors and roofs.
Columns
A column is a structural member that is under compression and transfers its load along a straight path
in the direction of the column. Columns are normally thought to be vertical, but they may be horizontal
or diagonal. The John Hancock building in Chicago, Illinois, has wind bracing as part of its visible
structure. This wind bracing provides rigidity to the structure when wind loads are applied. These
braces must resist both compression and tension forces in the structure caused by the wind. Bracing is
often designed and placed diagonally between columns; sometimes it is placed horizontally between
columns.
Often, braces are referred to as rakers or strutsfor example, temporary bracing used in tilt wall
construction when the wall panels have been raised vertically but before the wall panels are tied into
the roof structure. Not all horizontal members are columns; a load must pass through the member in
compression. Often, nonvertical columns are referred to by other names such as raker or strut.
Sometimes construction crews will refer to a bent, which is a row of columns in a line. The bay is the
open floor space between any two bents.
There are three basic types of columns; they are differentiated by the manner in which they generally
fail. These basic names are piers, intermediate columns, and long slender columns. (1) Not much
thought went into the names of these columns, but they fail differently. The long slender column fails by
bending or twisting, referred to as buckling. The pier, or squat column, fails by crushing. The
intermediate column may fail in either manner.
The length of the column determines its load-carrying capacity. The shorter a column, the more it can
carry. The load-carrying capacity of a column decreases as the length is increased. A column will lose
strength by the square of the change in length. A 16-foot-high column will carry one-fourth the load of
an eight-foot-high column. Once a column starts to fail, there is very little reserve strength to resist the
collapsein other words, once a column starts to fail, you are probably not going to stop it. Bracing
securely placed at the midpoint of a column will effectively increase the columns load-carrying ability,
making two columns of equal length and strength. Even with this bracing, a column will fail rapidly
when it reaches the critical yield load.
A column is cylindrical and hollow, allowing the load to be placed as far away from the center of the
cylinder as possible. Building with round cylinders is difficult. Attaching beams to round columns can
lead to design problems with aesthetics in the final finishing. Popular column shapes are round, box,
and probably the most popular H. These shapes will lend themselves well to the cylindrical column
theory. The H and box designs will allow a circle to be drawn encompassing the top and bottom of
each leg of the H, or the four corners of the box, while looking down on the end of the column. It is
easier to attach girders, beams, walls, and other building components to the box and H shapes than it
is to round building components.
Beams/Girders
A beam/girder trasmits forces in a direction perpendicular to such forces to points of reaction (points
of support, typically columns). A girder is a beam that supports other beams. The loading delivered to a
girder is the same as the load delivered to a beam. As the beam receives the load, the force is
transmitted perpendicularly, or at a right angle, to the supporting members of the beam. Loading of a
beam will cause the beam to bend downward. The bending action causes the top of the beam to be in
compression and the bottom under tension.
There are many types of beams: simple, continuous, fixed, overhanging, and cantilevered are but a
few. Beams receive a load, turn the force laterally, and stress the beams supporting members. I
mentioned above that some columns may be horizontal; the same is true for beams: A beam may be
horizontal or vertical. A roof rafter, for instance, is a beam that sits in an orientation that prevents you
from thinking of it as a beam.
The depth of a beam determines its load-carrying capacity. The beams load-carrying capacity
increases by the square of its depth. Look at a truss: The greater the distance between the top chord
and the bottom chord, the more the truss can carry, or the farther it can span. When looking at a beam,
notice its depth and the distance from the top to the bottom. You will then be able to determine the
load-carrying capacity relative to the surrounding beams. When looking at the beam, you will probably
notice girders in some areas. They will most likely be larger than the beams sitting on them.
Beams may also be suspended instead of sitting on columns. The rules still apply: The force is turned
laterally and then delivered to its supporting members. In cases of suspended beams, the beams load
places an attached supporting member in tension. The supporting member may be a chain, a cable, or
a steel rod held by something else. In the arrangement of suspended beams, the top portion of the
beam will be under compression and the bottom portion will be under tension, which is the same as for
any other beam.
A beam supported on each end with a load placed midspan will deflect. This deflection results in the
top portion of the beams being placed in compression and the bottom portion of the beams being
placed in tension. There will be a small portion of material in the center of the beam that has no stress
applied; this is known as the neutral plane. This neutral plane serves only to keep the compressed
and tensioned portions of the beam separated an equal distance for the length of the beam. Less
material is needed in this neutral plane. Thats why many trusses are of open-web design. Beam
loading refers to the distribution of the load on the beam. We in the fire service refer to this as a
concentrated or distributed load. The more the load is distributed, the better. Concentrated loads
may lead to local collapse.
Walls, Floors, and Roofs
Walls, like columns, transmit loads by compressive force to the floor below, another wall, or earth
through the foundation wall. The wall unit will react to force like a long slender column. A wall may also
be required to act like a beam, resisting flexing force such as a wind load.
Walls have two main classifications: load bearing and nonload bearing. A nonload-bearing wall must
support only its own weight and the weight contained in the wall. A strip mall most generally has
masonry and steel load-bearing walls. The interior wall separating the various stores is nonload
bearing. An interior wall that may be removed without supporting the structure above is a nonload-
bearing wall. A partition wall in an office and the brick veneer on the outside of a residential structure
are additional examples of nonload-bearing walls. A load-bearing wall will support a part of the
structure above the wall, which may be another wall, floors, or the roof. A load-bearing wall will be
more stable than a nonload-bearing wall because it can be attached top and bottom. This weight will
create a more stable environment for the wall. Bearing weight will cause a deflection and determines
that a load is present; this load will help to stabilize the wall.2
Many new structures, some of which are multistory, are built with tilt slab concrete walls. The tilt slab
concrete wall may be a bearing wall or a nonbearing wall. Nonbearing tilt slab wall panels have
perimeter steel columns and edge beams to support the vertical floor and roof loads.3 Pay attention to
new construction in your territory. The roof assembly (and floors of multistory buildings of this type of
construction) of both load-bearing tilt slab construction and nonload-bearing tilt slab construction is tied
to the walls. If the roof is being lost in fire conditions, firefighters must be very concerned of wall
collapse.
The tilt slab concrete walls will fail in a 90 angle collapse. This collapse may be outward or inward;
either way, it will be dangerous to firefighters in the collapse zone. A tilt-slab building under
construction is very dangerous. The walls are held in place temporarily with a false work of bracing
called tormentors. These tormentors may be lightweight aluminum poles or wooden planks staked to
the ground; they surround the wall and are angled into the slab. Sudden loading, such as in a wind
storm, may overload the tormentors. Unstable ground at the construction site may also cause the
tormentor to loosen, increasing the demand on the remaining tormentors. (1)
The roof system is of vital importance to the fire service. The roof assembly is where we will find the
dominate vertical channel4 for ventilation. This is where the fire will naturally travel and where we
must ventilate to reduce fire spread and make interior conditions more tenable. Roof assemblies vary
from just preventing the weather from entering the structure to providing stability for the exterior walls.
Most new lightweight construction methods require that the roof be a very important structural
component. Older construction doesnt necessarily require the roof to be an integral portion of the
structure; for example, a parking garage doesnt even have a roof. The roof assembly holds the walls
together in most lightweight construction methods; supports snow and rain load; resists wind stress;
and supports concentrated loads such as the HVAC unit, signs, and many other nondesigned loads in
altered buildings.
Roof assemblies may be very simple, such as wood rafters, to the more complex truss systems
supporting large-span roofs. Design loads for roof structures are not as great as for floor loads. A
noncombustible structure may have a combustible roof covering or roof structure.
With the current trend toward going green or environmentally friendly buildings and renovations, the
use of natural light is becoming more common. New structures have more openings for the passage of
light. They may be traditional skylights or thinner panels. Renovated structures are using these same
construction techniques and building features, possibly in roofs that were not designed for energy-
efficiency techniques and the natural lighting we have today. Mixing modern building techniques with
older buildings can lead to the structures not performing the way it was designed or the way we may
think it will. During the initial size-up during fire conditions, building renovations may not be noticed.
Your quick observations may lead you to believe the building has never been renovated. Renovation of
older buildings will continue, as it should. Remember it may not react in the way you would expect the
original construction method to react. The initial size-up rarely, if ever, allows for observation of the roof
assembly. Older building materials replaced with newer lightweight construction methods will not react
the same way.
Floor boards transmit loads to joists (beams). The amount of the load transmitted depends on the
distance the load point is away from the joist. Some floors are designed to support heavy loads, and
some may be designed to support only the load presented in a residential structure. Think about the
residential structure with a designed floor load of 40 pounds per square foot that has been converted to
a lawyers office, which could be equated with a library with book stacks where the design load is 150
pounds per square foot. (1) Check to determine if proper reinforcement has been installed to support
the additional loading.
It is important to have a good working relationship with your local building code officials. These officials
have the experience and knowledge base to determine the load capacity of structural components. It is
just as important for fire crews to get out into their assigned areas and look at the building methods.
With a good working relationship, code enforcement and fire crews can work together to keep the
community safe.
Load Imposition
How the load is centered on the building components is important, too. A torsion load is a twisting load.
Some vehicles have torsion bar suspension; the vehicle is attached to one end of a spring steel bar
(the torsion bar) while the wheels are attached to the other end. Bumps in the road are absorbed by
the twisting action of the torsion bar. Although a building torsion load is not designed to be a spring, the
load and stresses are the same. Buildings that have structural component failure often place
undesigned torsion loads on remaining structural members. These undesigned stresses may lead to
further collapse.
(5) The steel fire escape imposes an eccentric load on the wood-frame wall, as the load of the fire
escape does not pass through the center of the wood-frame wall.
A roof system containing an open web parallel cord lightweight steel truss is designed to transfer the
roof load horizontally to the supporting columns. All the roof trusses work in concert with each other.
Should one or more of these trusses fail, the remaining members, next to the failed ones, will have a
torsion load placed on them. This torsion load is undesigned. The truss is able to deal with the
designed load by transferring the load through tension and compression to the supporting column. The
torsion load placed on it may cause failure, as the truss cannot deal with all of the additional forces.
Axial load is one that passes through the centerline of the structural member; all portions of the
structural member are equally stressed.
(6) This photo details the use of a metal gusset plate connector on a lightweight wood truss. Notice the
limited thickness of the connector and the lack of quality control, which allowed 25 percent of the
connecting surface of the gusset plate to connect to nothing.
An eccentric load is one that is concentrated to one side of the supporting wall or column. The load is
straight but stresses only one side of the column. An example of an eccentric load would be the
sidewall of a multistory balloon frame construction building. The floor attachment is on a ribbon board
that is attached to the side of the sidewall. This ribbon board may be mortised into the stud or just
nailed to the stud. The floor load will place the wall stud in compression on the load side and in tension
on the opposite side. An exterior fire escape is another example of an imposed eccentric load.
(7) As the metal gusset plate is exposed to fire conditions, the teeth of the gusset plate conduct the
heat into the wood fibers, and decomposition of the wood fiber begins. The gusset plate may also warp
and begin to peel off the lightweight wood truss.
How the load is transmitted to the ground is of vital importance. Brannigan often requested that we
undress the building, meaning that we look at the supporting structure. He used the term gravity
resistance system to relate to the supporting columns, beams, floors, and roofs. (1) Building materials
are tested for their resistance to compression, tension, and shear. While looking at this gravity
resistance system, look at the components, and trace the load to the ground. This will help you
determine how structures are built. Understanding fire behavior and heat transfer will also assist in
determining how the structure will react.
REACTION OF STRUCTURAL COMPONENTS TO HEAT
Heat affects building components in various ways. Some components burn and add fuel to the fire;
others absorb heat for a time and conduct the heat through the structural component to another
location. Understanding the compression, tension, and shear stresses the structural components have
will assist you in determining the reactions that may occur when the structural components are
exposed to the heat from a fire.
(8) This building is an example of hybrid construction. The lower floors of the structure are constructed
with steel and masonry materials; the upper stories are lightweight wood-frame construction. As
construction progresses, we will be able to determine if the steel columns and beams will be protected
with a fireproofing material to give the steel a fire-resistance rating.
Items under tension are resisting the forces trying to make them longer. Heat elongates metal objects;
thus, the reaction to heating is manifested by exactly the same force the tensioned object is resisting.
This is thermal expansion; when heated, the atoms that make up the material increase movement. We
learned in basic training that a 100-foot-long steel beam may elongate by nearly 10 inches at 1,000F
(1), sometimes causing wall failure. We now see this same reaction to heat in lightweight steel
structuresnot with the wall pushing out but by the lightweight materials becoming curved or S
shaped perpendicular to the load or showing some other deformity. The strength is not in the material
to push the wall out but with the elongation. Something has to give; thus, the deformity.
For the most part, tensioned members are smaller than compressive members; thus, the mass is not
present to absorb the heat transfer. The structural component will elongate or deform. Simply playing a
hose stream on the structural components and cooling them below the reaction temperature will return
steel components to near their original strength. Keep in mind that the component will not return to its
original shape. The structural steel may not now be shaped to support the structure, but it will be
strong.
Much has been written about the metal gusset plates or gang nails in wooden truss construction. The
wooden truss industry suggests the metal reflects heat away from the wood, which doesnt really
matter, since the wood is so thin it cannot absorb much heat. The gang-nail plate is also very thin,
unable to absorb much heat. The nail plates on the bottom chord are in tension. When heated, they will
deform and become unattached from the wood. This, again, is an example of a structural member
under tension reacting to heat.
Look at wooden trusses involved in fire. Most times, the gang-nail plates on the compression chords
are intact and present, although deformed, while the gang-nail plates on the tensioned chords are
missing. Members under tension may be the first to fail under fire conditions. Construction members in
shear stress may have various reactions to heat. In the case of the aforementioned concrete anchor, if
the bolt is inserted into a lead anchor, heat will cause the lead to weaken and the anchor to pull out.
Given a steel anchor in concrete, the steel may swell and become tighter as the concrete absorbs heat
and transfers it to the metal anchor. Of course, once the steel reaches a certain threshold, it will itself
become weaker. Nails, which resist pulling out because of shear, vary in shear strength. A long and
skinny nail, especially one that is cement coated, will conduct less heat to char wood than a common
nail. Shear holds screws in place, offering greater holding power and less damage than nails to the
core materials.
Many variables exist when determining what will happen to building materials when they are exposed
to fire. We can talk in general terms of buildings, or we can speak in specifics of building or structural
components. Much research has been posted on the Internet. When viewing material, look at when
and how the experiment was conducted and determine if the results can be replicated. Manufacturers
testing sometimes augments data favorable to the manufacturer. When reviewing material, look to see
how the test was performed and to what standard.5 When testing organic building material, the
moisture content is a variablenew wood will not be as dry as the wood in an old house. Very dry
wood is not as strong as wood that contains moisture, such as when it is just out of the kiln.6 For
example, southern yellow pine in the nominal dimension of two inches is kiln dried to 12- to 15-percent
moisture content. Green wood, or fresh cut lumber, is considered to be of 23 percent moisture
content. Kiln-dried wood has a range of six to 15 percent, depending on the type of wood and the
desired usage.7 Kiln-dried wood is also considered stronger than wood that is stacked and allowed to
dry naturally.8
The behavior of hybrid construction or construction that uses combinations of building materials
(concrete, steel, and wood) is very difficult to predict in a fire situation. Many buildings today are built
using performance code requirements instead of traditional prescriptive code requirements (where
structural member dimensions are specified), meaning that the structure must support a given load,
using whatever building material/structural design the designer chooses. Many buildings are now built
using mathematical formulas and lighter-weight materials. (5) This math vs. mass (the heat-absorption
ability) will gain even more popularity as time passes. Technology for energy conservation and for
reducing costs (using recycled materials and newly developed building materials) will challenge the fire
service in the future.
What we should be thinking about when walking in a building are the way the structural building
components are loaded and how the stress will react under fire conditions. Let this awareness of your
surroundings surface in your mind. Try to make it a habit to be aware of what is around you, how
structures are built, and how the load gets to the ground. Additionally, think in terms of how heat will
affect the gravity-resistance system.
References
1. Brannigan, Francis L.. Building Construction for the Fire Service, 3rd Edition, fifth printing. The
National Fire Protection Association, 1995.
2. Dunn, Vincent. Collapse of Burning Buildings: A Guide to Fireground Safety. Fire Engineering, 1988.
3. Remmetter, Walters, and Steinbicker, Multi-Story Tilt-Up Buildings, Structure Magazine, July 2008,
22-25.
4. Coleman, John.Incident Command for the Street-Smart Fire Officer. (Tulsa, Okla: Fire Engineering,
1997).
5. Dansbach, Paul, Building Construction for Firefighters, FDIC 2002 class notes.
6. http://en.mimi.hu/home/kiln-dried.html/.
7. http://www.treesearch.fs.fed.us/pubs/9166/.
8. Firefighters Handbook, Delmar, 2000.
JAY D. MICHAEL, a 30-year veteran of emergency services, has served 24 years with the Elkhart (IN)
Fire Department, where he is a lieutenant. He is an Indiana fire officer III and an instructor II/III. He is
an adjunct instructor at the Elkhart Fire Department Training Academy and at the Michiana School of
Fire and Emergency Services at the University of Notre Dame. He is a member of the Indiana Fire
Instructors Association and the International Society of Fire Service Instructors. His areas of expertise
include incident management, building construction, and fire behavior.
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12/3/2017 Building Construction: Understanding Loads and Loading - Fire Engineering

Building Construction: Understanding

FORCES, LOADS, AND STRESS/STRAIN

Walls, Floors, and Roofs

REACTION OF STRUCTURAL COMPONENTS TO HEAT

8. Firefighters Handbook, Delmar, 2000.

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