ABSTRACT
Design loads in the United States are specified primarily in the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) standard ASCE 7 “Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures” and the International Building Code (IBC). This book is based upon ASCE 7-10 and IBC (2015). The two standards specify the minimum load requirements for the design of buildings and other structures that are subject to building code requirements. This book follows the strength design and the loads, and the appropriate load combinations specified in these codes are for the strength design method.
According to the ASCE 7-10, strength design is a method of proportioning structural members such that the computed forces produced in the members by the factored loads do not exceed the member design strength. Ultimate strength design is a method of structural design based on the ultimate strength due to the inelastic action of reinforced structural concrete cross sections subject to simple bending, axial load, shear, bond, or combinations thereof. Ultimate strength design does not necessarily involve an inelastic theory of structures. An evaluation of external moments and forces that act in indeterminate structural frameworks by virtue of dead, live, wind, earthquake, and other loads may be carried out either by the theory of elastic displacements or by limit state design.
