All about column footings (foundation)

[mofizahmed]

I have come up with an idea of providing diognal reinforcement at the footings of columns so that it can withstand higher wind pressure and more importantly resistance against earth quakes or seismic waves.Though dampers are used frequently as earthquake resistance material in the footings but they are helpfull to some extent only.Though diognal reinforcement in footing are not provided but I m suggesting this type of footing because these diognal reinforceent can withstand the tension force created due to the lateral movement of the earth during earth quake. My design is given below.I want to know whether the design that I am suggesting is "WORKABLE" and "EFFECTIVE" or not against the purpose for which it is designed..

. ..........................Vertical reinforcement ---> | |
.................................................................. | |
................................................................. /| |\
..........................Diognal reinforcement ---> / | | \
......................Mesh reinforcement--->____/__| |__\____ <--- Mesh reinforcement

[amyC]

Hi - I think you will have better luck getting expert replies if we move your post to one of the three major forums on Ask an Expert. I am not sure what grade you are in. If you can reply here letting me know, I or another moderator can move your question to the Physical Sciences forum.

Amy
Science Buddies

[deleted-71712]

Hi mofizahmed,

Evaluating whether your design is 'workable' or 'effective' sounds like a great project question. To turn it into a hypothesis, you would want to bleep quantify those properties -- for example, how much mechanical force, and from what angle, must the structure withstand in order to be considered 'effective'? Then you can come up with a way to test the performance as you vary bleep about the structure (probably a small-scale model in your case). The independent variable could be bleep as simple as whether the structure is reinforced or not, or you could test a range of reinforcements, varying bleep like the height of attachment or the angle with respect to the ground. I would suggest background reading both on column design/reinforcement and on the forces generated during earthquakes. Our science project guide has a lot more information about experimental design:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ndex.shtml

I searched for column design reinforcement and found a lot of results that look like good background reading. For example:

http://stommel.tamu.edu/~esandt/Teach/F ... ture19.ppt
http://stommel.tamu.edu/~esandt/Teach/F ... ture28.ppt (complete lectures for that course at http://stommel.tamu.edu/~esandt/Teach/F ... cture.html. It's specifically about concrete, but you don't say what material you're thinking of using.)

As you read more, you'll probably discover some key words to include in searches to get more specific results -- for example, lateral could be a good word to add.

And as Amy said, if you tell us what grade you're in, a moderator can move your topic into the appropriate forum where more experts will see it.

Best wishes,
Amanda

[mofizahmed]

Well i am doing Civil Engineering and i am in 3rd year 2nd sems,i don't know in what grade you are going to put me in,but I am about to do my mini project,so immediate responce is needed.
Even I am doing some research on it and taking help from teachers.

By the way thanks agm & amyc for your info.

[mofizahmed]

Sorry for putting wrong name Amy and Amanda but THANKS

[deleted-71447]

Hi mofizahmed,
Our forums are specifically devoted to high school science fair projects, but our experts are qualified and sometimes willing to assist with other types of projects such as yours.
I am not familiar with the requirements and expectations for a "mini project". Other experts here may be unfamiliar as well. If you can explain what is required for this project, it will help us to provide relevant advice.
Diagonal reinforcement seems like a workable and effective design to reduce damage from earthquakes. However, it is not clear to me how your design would be different from other diagonal bracings that are already commonly used for reinforcement . Can you explain?
Thanks,
Chris

[deleted-71588]

Hopefully you have had some coursework in simulations. Anything you design or build has a lot of trade offs and there is a cost associated with constructing and maintaining the design that can't be overlooked. Often when you change some aspect to improve performance somewhere you end up sacrificing bleep else. In your case, you will be increasing the size of the footprint. This will make it behave differently with respect to transverse gound waves and will increase coupling of some frequencies into your structure. In order to stabilize that new behavior, you will have to add strength and mass to the bearing plate which in turn will change the coupling. Most applications do not involve a single column, so you have to model multiple columns and what is resting on them. Your diagonal columns have different coupling and bearing than your vertical columns so it quickly goes beyond what somebody can predict without modeling. Unfortunately, modeling/simulation is an inexact discipline and actual testing will only tell you how well you did against the test conditions which may not be predictive of what happens in the real world. By increasing the footprint you also reduce the number of applications that can use your design.