Open Access Scientific Reports

LDG: Lateral Design Graph

Research Article Open Access
GG Schierle*
USC School of Architecture, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0291, USA
*Corresponding author: GG Schierle USC School of Architecture Los Angeles CA 90089-0291, USA Tel: +213-740-4590 Fax: +213-740-8884 E-mail: schierle@usc.edu
Received March 01, 2012; Published September 11, 2012
Citation: Schierle GG (2012) LDG: Lateral Design Graph. 1:305. doi:10.4172/scientificreports. 305
Copyright: © 2012 Schierle GG. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
LDG is an Excel macro program to define and visualize lateral wind and seismic loads, with the objective to streamline lateral force design and visualize the impact of lateral load on buildings.LDG is based on equations and procedures of IBC, International Building Code, and ASCE 7 building loads, American Society of Civil Engineers. LDG is posted at the author’s website:https://www.usc.edu/structures .
Click Links to display and/or download: LDG, LDG tutorial, IBC R-factors, USGS Seismic factors, and wind velocity map.To clarify, building data is displayed on white, seismic data on beige, and wind data on green background. Column A displays definitions and column B the related values. Prior to running LDG, the design data must be entered in column B.To run LDG with default or user defined data, press Ctrl-Shift-R together. The computed seismic and wind base shear are displayed at the respective bottom of columns AB. In case the data of AB gets corrupted, the data of TU may be copied and pasted into AB. Data display is defined as k= kip (1000#), psi = pounds per square foot.
Column                                              Data displayed:
A                                                         Definitions
B                                                         Values
C                                                         Space
D                                                         Levels
E                                                         Length (feet)
F                                                          Width (feet)
G                                                         Story height (feet)
H                                                         Mass (psf)
I                                                          Seismic force (k)
J                                                          Seismic shear (k)
K                                                         Seismic overturn moment (k’)
L                                                         Wind pressure (psf)
M                                                         X-wind load (k)
N                                                         X-wind shear (k)
O                                                         X-wind Overturn moment (k’)
P                                                          Y-wind force (k)
Q                                                         Y-wind force (k)
R                                                         Y-wind force (k)
S                                                         Space
T                                                         Data definitions (backup)
U                                                         Data values (backup)
V                                                         Space
W                                                        Brief data description
X                                                          Space
Y-AN                                                    Data tables and wind map
Site coefficients Fa (low-rise)
Site coefficients Fv (high-rise)
LDG data may be displayed as graphs. However, since LDG is in protected mode to preventdata alterations, making graphs requires to copy and paste data in a new Excel sheet (Figure1,2). Selecting any data column and graph type will display the respective graph on the Excel screen. The user my move the graph to any position on the Excel screen or display it as independent graph (Figure 3,4). The user may also size and format the graphs to any desired size and color.
Figure 1: LDG screen.
Figure 2: Excel screen with LDG data and graphs.
Figure 3: Seismic force Fs and shear Vs(k).
Figure 4: Seismic Overturn momentMs(k’).
References
	ASCE 7 (2010) Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures, American Society of Civil Engineers. IBC (2012) International Building Code,International Code Council, Falls Church, Virginia Schierle, G G (2006) Seismic Website, Building Technology Educators Conference. Schierle, G G (2008) Structure and Design, Cognella