In: Civil Engineering
“Most national and international engineering
organizations create, maintain, and distribute codes and
standards
that deal with uniformity in size of parts and correct engineering
design practices so that public safety is ensured.”
Explain briefly, why and how the Standards and Codes insure the
public safety. Provide one example.
The mail goal of all national and international codes and standards of civil engineering is to protect and safeguard public health and safety, with regards to the construction , use and maintenance of buildings.
In civil engineering structures there is a large variation in materials ,loads and construction practices and quality control. Therefore safety factors need to be applied to account for the same.
Example: There are variety of loads in design of structures namely:
1. Dead loads
2. Live loads
3. Snow loads
4. Wind loads
5. Earthquake loads
6. Rain etc.
However the data about the magnitudes of these loads is insufficient to arrive at a definitive figure for design. Therefore, the codes specify certain load factors to be applied to theses loads for using in design of the buildings .For example in LFRD method, following load combinations are specified in ACI code to arrive at the load combination for design.( only few are mentioned below to illustrate)
1. 1.4 D
2. 1.2 D+1.6L++0.5 (Lr or S or R)
3. Etc……..
Where D = dead load, L= live load, Lr=Roof live load, S= snow load ,R=rain load etc..
These load factors indirectly ensure public safety.