Light-weight/Prefab Steel Structures for Earthquake Areas

Abstract

Earthquakes are the most catastrophic phenomena of nature. In October 2005 major earthquake struck northern areas of Pakistan which lead to heavy loss of property and human life. After study of the area shows that almost 80-90% buildings made of masonry and RCC were destroyed acclaiming thousands of lives. Survey shows that buildings made of mud and masonry were completely destroyed, while 70% RCC building destroyed or declared unfit for living. Immediate rehabilitation of affecties was required. Light-gauge steel was first introduced in Pakistan at that time as a solution for rapid construction. The objective of this thesis is to study the economic prospective of light-gauge steel over conventional materials of construction. i.e. Masonry and RCC. In this research, 3 different plans of school buildings are selected with variation of their areas and shapes. Each of these plans is designed up to 4 storeys with Reinforced Masonry, RCC and Light-gauge steel. Up to 2 storey’s only cold formed steel is used while for 3 and 4 storey, composite building of cold formed and hot-rolled steel is designed, commonly known as Prefab building. Thus, total of 36 structures are designed, using various software such as ETABs 9.6, SAP 2000 V14, SAFE, MICROSOFT EXEL. All these structures are further estimated on similar grounds and various graphs have been plotted between framing cost and finishing cost depending upon plans and no. of stories