Influence of structural design on building costs

Abstract

This paper deals with the analysis and design of two buildings for two different uses. The first one is intended for residential use, while the second is designed for office usage. These buildings will be located in the city of Trondheim, Norway. The main objective of this document was to determine how the different structural designs for the same building affect in the final costs of the structure, taking into account different materials. The materials considered during the design and analysis phases for each of the buildings have been: reinforced concrete, structural steel and precast concrete. The structural scheme adopted foreach building have been a constant in the various alternatives considered in order to analyze how choosing one or the other material influences the final cost of the structure. Various structural solutions were posed and compared to choose the one considered most suitable in each case depending on the specific needs. The design and structural analysis was performed using the software ETABS 2015. In all cases the design was done based on the rules specified in the Eurocodes, which has been the reference standard. The main actions considered were the gravitational loads and lateral actions, such as wind and seismic actions. Additionally, structural verifications such as maximum vertical displacement and maximum storey drift were done to ensure the validity of the designs. After obtaining the designs for each alternative proposed in both buildings an economic analysis was conducted, which produced a final budget for each of the designed structures. In order to do this, the 2010 edition of the “Norwegian price book” (Norsk Prisbok 2010) was used as a reference price database. Finally the different alternatives have been compared in order to determine the advantages and disadvantages of each and their influence on the final cost. It was observed that, for both buildings, the precast concrete alternative was the most competitive one in terms of economy with respect to the other alternatives.