On mass quantities of gravity frames in building structures

Abstract

This paper introduces a numerical study aimed at analysing and quantifying existing correlations between structural masses of the gravity frame in building structures (i.e. excluding lateral load resisting system) and some key basic design variables, such as bay areas of the frame layout, magnitude of floor loads and (main) structural material. Three material options are considered, namely: reinforced concrete, steel and engineered timber. A total of 31,380 different structural frame designs are parametrically generated and analysed to obtain a population of design data points that express the amounts of structural mass per unit of floor area. Least squares and quantile regression analyses have been utilised on the numerically generated sample population to evaluate any existing statistical trend between design variables and mass quantities. The set of regression coefficients so obtained is eventually organised into a tabular format, which allows for immediate estimations of the structural mass quantities (along with their uncertainty ranges) at an early stage of the structural design process. Such a table of coefficients represents the main finding of this work, as it can be straightforwardly combined with existing databases of embodied GHG and energy coefficients, therefore providing an effective estimation tool, for both practitioners and researchers, to quickly assess how both layout and load configurations affect the environmental impacts of their frame design.