FLOOD PROOFING CIVIL ENGINEERING DESIGN BASIC AND TUTORIALS

FLOOD PROOFING CIVIL ENGINEERING DESIGN BASIC INFORMATION
What Is Flood Proofing? Civil Engineering In Flood Proof


A flood occurs when a river rises above an elevation, called flood stage, and is not prevented by enclosures from causing damage beyond its banks. Buildings constructed in a flood plain, an area that can be inundated by a flood, should be protected against a flood with a mean recurrence interval of 100 years.

Maps showing flood-hazard areas in the United States can be obtained from the Federal Insurance Administrator, Department of Housing and Urban Development, who administers the National Flood Insurance Program. Minimum criteria for floodproofing are given in National Flood Insurance Rules and Regulations (Federal Register, vol. 41, no. 207, Oct. 26, 1976).

Major objectives of floodproofing are to protect fully building and contents from damage from a l00-year flood, reduce losses from more devastating floods, and lower flood insurance premiums. Floodproofing, however, would be unnecessary if buildings were not constructed in flood prone areas.

Building in flood prone areas should be avoided unless the risk to life is acceptable and construction there can be economically and socially justified.

Some sites in flood prone areas possess some ground high enough to avoid flood damage. If such sites must be used, buildings should be clustered on the high areas.

Where such areas are not available, it may be feasible to build up an earth fill, with embankments protected against erosion by water, to raise structures above flood levels. Preferably, such structures should not have basements, because they would require costly protection against water pressure.

An alternative to elevating a building on fill is raising it on stilts (columns in an unenclosed space). In that case, utilities and other services should be protected against damage from flood flows. The space at ground level between the stilts may be used for parking automobiles, if the risk of water damage to them is acceptable or if they will be removed before flood waters reach the site.

Buildings that cannot be elevated above flood stage should be furnished with an impervious exterior. Windows should be above flood stage, and doors should seal tightly against their frames. Doors and other openings may also be protected with a flood shield, such as a wall.

Openings in the wall for access to the building may be protected with a movable flood shield, which for normal conditions can be stored out of sight and then positioned in the wall opening when a flood is imminent.

To prevent water damage to essential services for buildings in flood plains, important mechanical and electrical equipment should be located above flood level. Also, auxiliary electric generators to provide some emergency power are desirable.

In addition, pumps should be installed to eject water that leaks into the building. Furthermore, unless a building is to be evacuated in case of flood, an emergency water supply should be stored in a tank above flood level, and sewerage should be provided with cutoff valves to prevent backflow.

CONTINUOUS BEAMS BASICS AND TUTORIALS

CONTINUOUS BEAMS BASIC INFORMATION
What Are Continuous Beams?


Beam continuity may represent an efficient stactical solution with reference to both load capacity and stiffness. In composite buildings, different kinds of continuity may, in principle, be achieved, as indicated by Puhali et al., between the beams and the columns and, possibly, between adjacent beams.

Furthermore, the degree of continuity can vary significantly in relation to the performance of joints as to both strength and stiffness: joints can be designed to be full or partial strength (strength) and rigid, semi-rigid, or pinned (stiffness).

Despite the growing popularity of semi-rigid partial strength joints, rigid joints may still be considered the solution most used in building frames. Structural solutions for the flooring system were also proposed, which allow an efficient use of beam continuity without the burden of costly joints.

In bridge structures, the use of continuous beams is very advantageous for it enables joints along the beams to be substantially reduced, or even eliminated. This results in a remarkable reduction in design work load, fabrication and construction problems, and structural cost.

From the structural point of view, the main benefits of continuous beams are the following:  at the serviceability limit state: deformability is lower than that of simply supported beams, providing a reduction of deflections and vibrations problems  at the ultimate limit state: moment redistributionmay allow an efficient use of resistance capacity of the sections under positive and negative moment.

However, the continuous beam is subjected to hogging (negative) bending moments at intermediate supports, and its response in these regions is not efficient as under sagging moments, for the slab is in tension and the lower part of the steel section is in compression.

The first practical consequence is the necessity of an adequate reinforcement in the slab. Besides, the following problems arise:  at the serviceability limit state: concrete in tension cracks and the related problems such as control of the cracks width, the need of a minimum reinforcement, etc., have to be accounted for in the design.

Moreover, deformability increases reducing the beneficial effect of the beam continuity  at the ultimate limit state: compression in steel could cause buckling problems either locally (in the bottom flange in compression and/or in the web) or globally (distortional lateral-torsional buckling)

Other problems can arise as well; i.e., in simply supported beams, the shear-moment interaction is usually negligible, while at the intermediate supports of continuous beams both shear and bending can simultaneously attain high values, and shear-moment interaction becomes critical.