MCS605

Unit Description and General Aims

With advances in technology and continually increasing aspirations, society is seeing trends in structural engineering toward the construction of ever-taller buildings and ever-longer and more complex bridges. This unit looks at these two structural forms in greater detail, beginning with a focus on high-rise building design.  Attention is first given to structural forms commonly adopted for high-rise design and the distribution of vertical and lateral design loads.  Methods of analysis are next considered for both serviceability and ultimate limit state design and for both static and dynamic analysis. The study on high-rise buildings concludes with a critique of construction and durability issues specific to this structural type.

The second part of the course is dedicated to the bridge design. It starts with a review of different bridge types, associated load paths, and various types of bridge decks. The loading conditions used in the bridge design are studied next. This includes gravity and lateral loads as well as temperature and time-dependent design considerations. The unit concludes with a study of the design procedures for the most common bridge types and several case studies of both successful design examples and bridge failures.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this Unit, students are expected to be able to:

1. Make judgements and be familiar with the most commonly encountered structural forms for high rise buildings and for bridges
   • Bloom’s Level 5
2. Formulate a design load combinations suitable for high rise buildings and for bridges
   • Bloom’s Level 6
3. Determine static and dynamic analysis of both high rise buildings and bridges
   • Bloom’s Level 5
4. Optimise preliminary design for different floor types that are most commonly used in high rise building and for different bridge deck types that are most commonly encountered in bridges
   • Bloom’s Level 5
5. Propose important aspects of construction sequencing for high rise buildings and for bridges
   • Bloom’s Level 6
6. Synthesise some of the most well-known failures for high rise building and bridges, as a guide to inform correct design in future
   • Bloom’s Level 6

Student assessment

Note - all assessments submissions are mandatory for passing the unit.

Prescribed and Recommended readings

Required textbook(s)

1. Bridge Engineering Handbook Fundamentals (2014), Edited By Wai-Fah Chen, Lian Duan, 2^nd Edition, CRC Press (https://www.routledge.com/Bridge-Engineering-Handbook-Fundamentals/Chen-Duan/p/book/9781439852071).
2. Tall building design: Steel, concrete, and composite systems. Taranath, B.S., (2016), Taylor & Francis Group.

Recommended textbook(s)

1. Structural Analysis and Design of Tall Buildings: Steel and Composite Construction’ (2016) by Taranath, B.S. CRC Press.
2. ICE Manual of Bridge Engineering Edited by Parke, G. and Hewson, N. (2022), 3rd Edition, ICE Publishing. (available via the EIT eLibrary)
3. Failure Case Studies - Steel Structures by Nastar, N. and Liu, R. (2019) American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). (available via the EIT eLibrary)
4. Bridge Engineering - Classifications, Design Loading, and Analysis Methods by Lin, W. and Yoda, T. (2017) Elsevier (available via the EIT eLibrary)
5. Design and Analysis of Tall and Complex Structures, Feng Fu, (2018), Elsevier. (available via the EIT eLibrary)
6. Tall Building Structures: Analysis and Design, Stafford Smith, B. and Coull, A., (1991), John Wiley & Sons.

Reference Materials

Number of peer-reviewed journals and websites as advised below (and during lectures);

1. Resources from the American Institute of Steel Construction website (https://www.aisc.org/).
2. Other material to be advised during the lectures.

Unit Content

One topic is delivered per contact week, with the exception of part-time 24-week units, where one topic is delivered every two weeks.

Topic 1

Structural Forms and Design loads for high-rise buildings

1. Introduction

2. Structural forms of tall buildings

 Lateral load-resisting systems

 Gravity load-resisting system

3. Design loads

Topic 2

Limit state design and analysis of high-rise buildings

1. Limit State Design

2. Tall buildings design procedure

3. Static and Dynamic analysis of high-rise structures

4. Preliminary Design

Topic 3

Steel-Concrete composite construction

1. Introduction

2. Composite beams

3. Shear connection

Topic 4

 Building floor systems in high-rise buildings

1. In-situ Concrete Floor Systems

2. One-way and two-way slabs

3. Composite Steel/Concrete Floor Systems

4. Precast flooring systems

Topic 5

Dynamic Response of Tall Buildings

1. Structural Dynamics Revision

2. Earthquake loads

3. Wind load

Topic 6

Structural forms for bridges

1. Types of bridges.
2. Types of bridge decks.
3. Structural forms and load paths.

Topic 7

Bridge load cases and combinations

1. Dead load.
2. Static and dynamic vehicle loads.
3. Temperature effects.
4. Creep and shrinkage effects.
5. Static and dynamic wind loads.
6. Static and dynamic earthquake loads.
7. Fatigue loads.
8. Load combinations.

Topic 8

Bridge flat slabs

1. Flat slab loads.
2. Flat slab design.

Topic 9

Bridge slab and deck

1. Deck loads.
2. Deck design.

Topic 10

Bridge box girder

1. Box girder loads.
2. Box girder design.

Topic 11

Case study building failure

Citicorp Centre in New York.

Topic 12

Case study bridge failure

1. Tennessee River Bridge Collapse in 1995.
2. I35 interstate bridge collapse.
3. Derwent River bridge in Hobart in 1975.

Engineers Australia

The Australian Engineering Stage 1 Competency Standards for the Professional Engineer, approved as of 2013. This table is referenced in the mapping of graduate attributes to learning outcomes and via the learning outcomes to student assessment.

Software/Hardware Used

Software

• Software: N/A

• Version: N/A

• Instructions:  N/A

• Additional resources or files: N/A

Hardware

• N/A

Unit Changes Based on Student Feedback