Analysis of Pre-Engineered Buildings with different types of bracings – Using STAAD Pro Connect

Every year 1.86 billion metric tons of steel produced and the construction industry accounts to half of its consumption. Steel is an extremely versatile material that is not only easily available, cheap and easy to work with but also 100 % recyclable. This property of steel makes it a very viable solution to the ongoing environmental problems and even a better alternative to the conventional building materials. There are various types of steel available in the industry. It includes hot rolled steel sections that are already manufactured at certain pre-determined sizes. The properties of the hot rolled sections are already studied and readily available as tables. The other type of steel section is cold form steel which is differentiated by the process of production. The last and most commonly used type of steel section is the structural steel. Structural steel is prefabricated according to the design requirements of the project.
Pre-Engineered Steel Building System is broadly accepted across the world as a competent alternative to conventional steel buildings. Pre-Engineered Buildings (PEB) are a type of steel structures that can be constructed easily and quickly. Pre-Engineered Buildings are nothing but steel buildings in which surplus steel is evaded by tapering the sections as per the necessity of bending moment. Though it has many advantages, it is not widely used in India due to the lack of awareness. In Conventional steel structures, both the time and cost will be more, thus making it uneconomical. Thus, in pre-engineered buildings, the complete design is done and the detailed drawings are sent to the factories, and where the elements and members are pre-fabricated and then transported to the construction site. As they are already pre-fabricated according to the design the erection process will only take 2 to 6 weeks depending on the immensity of the project. Pre-Engineered Buildings have bolted connections and later can also be reused after dismantling. It is the most affordable and flexible building system ideal for any low or high rise industrial, institutional or commercial applications. The other advantages include low cost, environment friendly, easy erection, aesthetic appeal, flexibility and high durability. All these advantages make it the most suited after construction practice in the world. In India, Pre-Engineered & Pre-Fabricated building industry is growing swiftly. The paper involves analysis of the Pre-Engineered Building with different types of bracing and finding the most economical bracing. It also includes achieving economy by tapering the sections based on the bending moments.