CONSTRUCTION PLANNING

Construction Planning



Construction Planning

Overview of the Building

Introduction

Geometry of the Building

The general layout of the building is shown in Figure 1. At ground level, the floor beams FB are not provided, since the floor directly rests on ground (earth filling and 1:4:8 c.c. at plinth level) and no slab is provided. The ground beams are provided at 100 mm below ground level. The numbering of the members is explained as below.

Storey number

Storey numbers are given to the portion of the building between two successive grids of beams. For the example building, the storey numbers are defined as follows:

Portion of the building Storey no.

Foundation top - Ground floor 1

Ground beams - First floor 2

First Floor - Second floor 3

Second floor - Third floor 4

Third floor - Fourth floor 5

Fourth floor - Fifth floor 6

Fifth floor - Terrace 7

Column number

In the general plan of Figure 1, the columns from C1 to C16 are numbered in a convenient way from left to right and from upper to the lower part of the plan. Column C5 is known as column C5 from top of the footing to the terrace level. However, to differentiate the column lengths in different stories, the column lengths are known as 105, 205, 305, 405, 505, 605 and 705 [Refer to Figure 2(b)]. The first digit indicates the storey number while the last two digits indicate column number. Thus, column length 605 means column length in sixth storey for column numbered C5. The columns may also be specified by using grid lines.

Floor beams (Secondary beams)

All floor beams that are capable of free rotation at supports are designated as FB in Figure 1. The reactions of the floor beams are calculated manually, which act as point loads on the main beams. Thus, the floor beams are not considered as the part of the space frame modelling.

Main beams number

Beams, which are passing through columns, are termed as main beams and these together with the columns form the space frame. The general layout of Figure 1 numbers the main beams as beam B1 to B12 in a convenient way from left to right and from upper to the lower part of the plan. Giving 90o clockwise rotation to the plan similarly marks the beams in the perpendicular direction.

To floor-wise differentiate beams similar in plan (say beam B5 connecting columns C6 and C7) in various floors, beams are numbered as 1005, 2005, 3005, and so on. The first digit indicates the storey top of the beam grid and the last three digits indicate the beam number as shown in general layout of Figure 1. Thus, beam 4007 is the beam located at the top of 4th storey whose number is B7 as per the general layout.

Modern building and construction projects rely heavily on construction documentation supplied by the contractor or sub-contractor. Construction documents are generally prepared using Computer Aided Design (CAD/AutoCAD) and contain plans, elevations, sections, working drawings, bill of materials ...