Steel Buildings In High Seismic Areas

By Chris Dotson

The engineering departments of the companies that sell steel buildings can design the metal buildings to withstand the most extreme of all weather conditions and highest seismic forces. Everyone is pretty much well aware of the seismic activity that exists throughout California.

But a lot of people are not aware of the small pocket earth quake areas throughout the entire United States, such as Tennessee. Not even a week ago there was an earthquake that was right on the border of Colorado and New Mexico, with a magnitude of 3.0 or less. So what does this have to do with Prefabricated Steel Buildings?

Defined in the American Heritage Dictionary, the movements of the earth's crust from stress accumulated over a long geological faults or by volcanic activity.

A seismic wave in the ground beneath the structure will send a shock of kinetic energy into it. It is critical that the design of the buildings is there for absorbing and controlling these kinetic energies as it dissipates. For years now the steel building designers have known how to combat these types of interferences.

There are many rules and regulations, when it comes to designing a residential and commercial steel buildings, that will be erected in the high seismic areas across the country, a lot having to do with the bracing of the building.

There are two different types of wall bracing that can used when designing steel barns. It should be noted that it's not necessary to brace every part of every wall of the steel barn for it to be able to resist the lateral forces of an earthquake. In a smaller steel garage only one bay of each wall needs to be braced. In steel buildings consisting of five bays or more, two bays at each wall need to be braced. The first type I'm going to describe is called diaphragm bracing or panel shear. This is the least expensive type of bracing and is mostly used in areas where the wind speed and seismic forces are the lowest. Diaphragm bracing is where the wall sheeting of the metal barns is designed to absorb the lateral wind and seismic forces.

But say you are in an area in which you need more bracing because the threat is much greater, your goin to need a system called x-bracing. This type of bracing makes use of strong cables that are set up diagonally connected to the struts and columns on each side of the designated bay to be braced.

So if you live in California or one of the other high seismic activity areas and you are ready to buy one of the many discounted steel buildings from Price A Building, you can be assured that it will be designed to stand up to earthquakes.

About the Author:

0 comments:

Guides Complete