Sponsored by ASCE Continuing Education and the Structural Engineering Institute (SEI).  

This is a very effective seminar. Nicely presented.

Purpose and Background

Metal building systems (also called pre-engineered buildings) are designed and manufactured by their suppliers. According to some estimates, these extremely popular structures account for about two thirds of all low-rise nonresidential buildings in the United States. A lot of research and engineering goes into developing design methodologies for metal buildings, but little guidance exists on the topic of designing their foundations.

Some special challenges involved in designing foundations for metal building systems stem from the fact that their primary framing typically exerts significant horizontal reactions on the foundations. In addition, these extremely lightweight structures tend to experience net uplift on their supports. Accordingly, foundations for metal building systems are generally designed to resist a combination of lateral and vertical loads. When the columns are fixed at the bottom, rather than pinned, additional complications arise.

Not all the foundation designers are familiar with these complexities, and some foundation designs for these structures have been either overly complicated or barely adequate (or not adequate at all). This webinar fills the knowledge void by exploring the most common design solutions for pre-engineered building foundations. Among them are tie rods, which can extinguish the opposing lateral reactions, hairpins, which try to incorporate the slab on grade into the lateral force transfer, and many other systems, such as slabs with edge haunches and moment-resisting foundations. The presentation includes several design examples for various design systems.

Learning Outcomes

• Explore the common types of foundations for metal building systems
• Learn the design methodology for various types of foundations
• Discover the optimum range of applications for various systems