Structural Engineering

A person who is doing structural engineering is called Structural Engineer in which it is

considered a specialty within the field of civil engineering. They are one of the most
important people in a project. They design structural plans for buildings so that the
building can resist various type of loads such as dead load, live load, wind load, soil
lateral pressure load and so much more. A simple example is when we design the
structure of a human body, then structural engineers design and maintain the skeleton.
The main objective for a structural engineering is to ensure the safety of all living person
present during the construction phase and after the final phase of the project. They design
the structural plans with many calculation and precaution to prevent any mischief such as
the downfall of a building or the bridge from collapsing due to lateral loads and load
induced by gravity.

Role of a Structural Engineering

A. Design the structural part of a building, bridge, tunnel, etc
B. Investigate and survey the project site to determine the suitability of the earth for the
requirements of a particular project.
C. Proposing suitable materials and equipment of the project given.
D. Choosing the best construction method which is most suitable and economical.
Building Design
For the structural building, Decision has been made to build six classroom for the
classroom block, for the size of the classroom, it will be big enough to fit around 40
students. For Special Block, there will be a library, science lab, computer lab,
Art&Musical room and one available room for future uses. For administration block,
there will be a staff room, Counsellor room, Control Centre, Infirmary room. For the
Dining hall, it will be big enough to fit 200 people which include a canteen, kitchen and
a separate area for students and teachers. There will be a multipurpose hall in which will
have a basketball court and 2 badminton court that will be merged together. For the

football field, there will be benches being build in and fence surrounding the area. For the
2 block two-storey hostel, there will be 70 rooms with bathroom install in each room for
each block. Lastly, for the single-storey linked house, living room, bedroom, kitchen and
bathroom is provided for each house.
Roof
Roof is an essential part of a building which is build on top of a building, it provides
protection to people inside a building from sunlight, rain, strong wind and etc. Roofing
system can be categorized to various types such as gable roof and flat roof.
Types of roofing system
For this project, the structural engineers decided to use 3 different types of roofing
system. Those system are:
a. Metal Roof
b. Flat Roof
c. Micro Concrete Roof (MCR)
Metal roof
Metal roof will be installed on the multi-purpose hall (MPH) and dining hall . The
material used for metal roof are mostly metal pieces or tiles. The components of the metal
roof are firstly build by parts, then assemble together on site. The advantage of metal roof
is that it not only save a lot of construction time, but it also can last up to 100 years, it is
somewhat costly but due to their longevity, it is cheaper compare to other roof materials
such as asphalt shingles in a long term.
Flat roof
For our 2 rows of 4 single-storey linked house, the roof will be a flat roof. The structural
engineer choose flat roof due to their teams concept of using as much natural resources
as possible. With the houses roof having a wider base, this makes it more sufficient to
collect rainwater. Rainwater is then distributed into a tank inside the house for daily uses.
If the harvested rainwater is depleted, the tank automatically received water from the
main water source until the next storm. The material used must be waterproof hence PVC

(vinyl) membrane was used. The Advantage of using PVC membrane is that is is flexible,
lighter in weight, hence easier to install on a roof, has a high reflective to keep buildings
cooler, resistant to most chemical reactions.
Micro Concrete Roof (MCR)
For the rest of the building, Micro Concrete Roof is being installed in all the two-storey
buildings and hostels. The material used for making MCR tiles are a mixture of cement,
sand and aggregate. The advantage of using MCR tiles is that it can be produced locally
on site, it does not required any highly profession worker to produced the MCR tiles
which in terms cost less compare to ready made tiles. The durability of the MCR tiles is
the same as normal concrete. It has high heat resistant and is soundproof during the event
of raining.