UNIBUILD (USA)

AN ENGINEER’S APPROACH TO A BUILDING WALL SYSTEM

The requirements of an exterior wall to enclose a building are many. You would like the wall to be a barrier for the weather and not only keep the elements of weather out of the building envelope but also provide insulation. You would like it to be fire resistive, durable, low maintenance and inexpensive. From a structural engineering perspective, you would like this wall to support vertical loads from the roof and floors and also support lateral loads from wind and seismic forces.

The UNIBUILD wall panel has all the attributes of the above ideal wall system and the desired features come from a very efficient use of materials, which is where the engineer is coming from - the practical use of scientific knowledge.

After the UNIBUILD wall panel supports the vertical loads from the roof and the walls, the main structural requirement of the wall is that it must resist lateral loads from wind and earthquake forces. The UNIBUILD wall supports the lateral load as a wide vertical beam. The lateral loads, as you know, come in two directions - perpendicular to the face of the wall, and parallel to the face of the wall. The perpendicular we call “out-of-plane” and the parallel we call “in-plane”. The UNIBUILD panel handles the out-of-plane loads very efficiently spanning horizontally in the short direction so the panel can be thin between the vertical columns. The in-plane forces, which are delivered to the panel from the roof and floor diaphragms, are resisted by the panel’s connection to the foundation, the grade level floor and the connection to adjacent panels. Regardless of the width of any kind of wall panel, you want to connect the panels to each other, so you might as well utilize this connection to resist the in-plane, overturning forces while you are at it.

This creative, but simple, design of the UNIBUILD panel provides this efficient configuration that encloses the building with less material resulting with less cost and better performance during earthquakes without giving up any other attributes of a good wall system.

(By David C. Breiholz, P.E. Breiholz Qazi Engineering, Inc. Civil and Structural Engineering, Seismic Hazard Reduction, Architecture).- California, USA.

UNIBUILD is the Registered Trademark of UNIBUILD PTY. LTD. AUSTRALIA.

(REF:USA-04)