Thanks to the engineering departments of the steel building companies there are several types of buildings to withstand extreme weather and high seismic forces. Its common knowledge of the seismic activity that resides in California.
But something a lot of people are not aware of, are the small seismic pockets through out the entire United States, such as Tennessee. Last week there was a 3.0 magnitude earth quake on the border of Colorado and New Mexico. So what does this mean when putting up your Prefabricated Steel Building.
As defined by the American Heritage Dictionary, an earthquake is the sudden movement of the earth’s crust caused by the release of stress accumulated along geological faults or by volcanic activity.
As the seismic waves make the ground move underneath a structure, they pass on kinetic energy into that structure. Through it’s design, a steel building must absorb and control this kinetic energy as it dissipates throughout it. For years, metal building engineers have known how to design the prefab steel buildings to withstand these seismic forces.
There are several rules to be followed when designing residential and commercial steel buildings that will be erected in the high seismic areas across the country with respect to the kinds of bracing that can be used for the prefab metal building.
There are two different types of wall bracing that can used when designing steel barns. It should be noted that it’s not necessary to brace every part of every wall of the steel barn for it to be able to resist the lateral forces of an earthquake. In a smaller steel garage only one bay of each wall needs to be braced. In steel buildings consisting of five bays or more, two bays at each wall need to be braced. The first type I’m going to describe is called diaphragm bracing or panel shear. This is the least expensive type of bracing and is mostly used in areas where the wind speed and seismic forces are the lowest. Diaphragm bracing is where the wall sheeting of the metal barns is designed to absorb the lateral wind and seismic forces.
In areas of very high seismic activity, all engineering departments of the steel building companies and factories require that a prefab metal building be braced using cable bracing (also called x-bracing). This type of bracing uses rod or cable structural support diagonals connected to the eave strut and the columns on each side of the designated bay to be braced.
So if you are a resident of California or one of the more remote earth quake areas and you are ready to purchase your discounted steel building from Price A Building, you can definitely be assured that it will be designed to withstand anything issues that you may have.