STRUCTURAL DESIGN
Stampa
Enrollment year
2014/2015
Academic year
2016/2017
Regulations
DM270
Academic discipline
ICAR/09 (CONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUES)
Department
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING AND ARCHITECTURE
Course
CIVIL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING
Curriculum
PERCORSO COMUNE
Year of study
Period
2nd semester (01/03/2017 - 09/06/2017)
ECTS
6
Lesson hours
64 lesson hours
Language
Italian
Activity type
WRITTEN AND ORAL TEST
Teacher
PENNA ANDREA (titolare) - 6 ECTS
Prerequisites
The course requires as fundamental prerequisites the basic courses on Structural Mechanics (Scienza delle Costruzioni) and Structural Analysis (Tecnica delle Costruzioni).
Learning outcomes
The Structural Design course aims at introducing the students to the principles of structural design, intended as a global process starting from functional and architectural data and arriving to the conception, calculation and design of a structure and its structural details. The course is strongly oriented to practical issues, hence requiring an active collaboration of the students. A key part of the course consists of the design of the reinforced concrete structure of a simple building, to be carried out in parallel with the theoretical classes. At the end of the course, each student must be able to conceive a simple structural design, to size and verify structural elements and to design their critical structural details. The main focus is on reinforced concrete structures, but the last part of the course is addressed to alternative construction techniques.
Course contents
Introduction to structural design
- Main design choices, simplified sizing methods. Understanding the response of structural systems. Choice of materials and structural typologies. Structural schemes and approximated calculation methods. Design actions and structural safety. Structural analysis. Code references.
- Reinforced concrete structures

Design of structural elements
- Beams: limit state sizing and design for shear and flexure; formed and flat beams, rectangular or T sections; layout of the shear and flexural reinforcement; construction details.
- Sizing and design of diaphragms.
- Columns: rectangular and circular; strength design and verification and instability, longitudinal reinforcement and stirrups; confinement; tapering, reinforcement overlapping; construction details.
- Additional construction details: corbels; beam-column joints and beam-beam intersections: central joints, T joints, L joints; cracking and collapse mechanisms; reinforcement layout.
- Notes on foundation systems: direct and indirect foundations: pad footings, strip footings, piles; design and verification methods; reinforcement layout.
- Introduction to prestressed reinforced concrete structural systems and to mixed steel-concrete structures.
Teaching methods
Lectures (hours/year in the classroom): 45
Practical lectures (hours/year in the classroom): 0
Practical activities (hours/year in the classroom): 0
Reccomended or required readings
Notes and teaching material provided by the professor; technical codes. Books and other documents useful to deepen some specific topics will be also suggested during the course.
Assessment methods
The design project carried out during the course by small groups of students (up to 4 people) will be the starting point of the examination procedure.
After submitting their design project, students can enrol (1) for the written exam, which will be focused on the simplified design of a portion of a reinforced concrete structure.
Students passing the written exam with a sufficient grade can access the oral examination (2), in which they illustrate their design project, discuss possible mistakes of the written exam and answer to questions on the theoretical and practical aspects of structural design.
Notes:
(1) The design project can be submitted even electronically (email) and it has to be submitted within the deadline for enrolling (online) for the chosen written examination call
(2) The oral examination can be sustained within the same examination call in which the written exam was sustained or, otherwise, in the following examination call of the same exam session (e.g. written exam in June and oral exam in July). Only in case the written exam is passed at the end of the summer exam session (July), is it possible to take the oral exam also in the following exam session of September.
Further information
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Sustainable development goals - Agenda 2030