Preface

With the increase in commercial and residential needs, particularly in Asia, more taller buildings are being designed and constructed. Tall buildings are expensive and involve many considerations in both the design and construction processes. The associated foundations for tall buildings may be constructed in different ground conditions, from good to bad soil/rock conditions. To the surprise of the authors, most of the existing books on building and foundation design and construction are superficial to different extents. While some of the basic structural analysis and design principles are generally covered in these books, there are more details on the modelling of structures and foundations, which are not well covered. To be more specific, there are major gaps between what is described in most of the books and the actual design practice required by the engineers. This is the feedback about many existing books written by various graduate engineers.

The authors have extensive practical and research experience in building and foundation engineering and have also been involved in some of the design code/handbooks in Hong Kong. In view of the limitations of most of the books, the authors have tried to cover some of these deficiencies in their teaching materials by providing adequate bridges between theory and actual design practice. The authors have also noted that many design practices, methods, equations, and figures used by the engineers are never clearly explained. Many graduate engineers simply follow these common design practices blindly without adequate understanding. In fact, one of the examiners for the structural discipline of the Hong Kong Institute of Engineers has expressed the concern that many engineers can operate computer software well but lack the knowledge of the analysis. The authors do not view this situation as beneficial, and this is the background for the preparation of this book.

In this book, the authors try to provide adequate information of the basic theory of construction (or references to the basic theory) and, a clear explanation of the design principles and design practice, with some advanced topics and updated theory of building construction. It is hoped that the gap between what is described in this book and the actual engineering practice can be reduced so that an engineer can pick up the design practices easily with a good understanding of structural principles. Since many engineers adopt the use of different computer software (mostly finite element-based), the limitations and precautions in using computer software will also be discussed in this book.

Finally, the authors have taken a real project for illustration of the analysis and design of a multi-storey buildings, together with the basements and foundations for illustration. The complete feasibility report, design analysis and design report, all the required computer input files and drawings are shown. The readers can refer to the reports and drawings for the actual design procedures and construction details for superstructures, basements and foundations. This will greatly facilitate the learning process as well as real design works.