Building Construction definitions Flashcards
Type I building construction
Fire resistive; Common in schools, hospitals and High-rise buildings
Type II building construction
Noncombustible; Common in warehouse and factories
Type III building consrtuction
Ordinary; Common in strip malls and apartment buildings, have masonry outside walls
Type IV building construction
Heavy timber; common in old churches
Type V building construction
Wood frame; most common form of construction today.
Combines the function of a beam and column.
Arch
Vertical or horizontal orientation
Attitude
A load that passes through the centroid of a section under construction and is perpendicular to he plane of the section
Axial load
A collapse in which an entire wall fails as one unit
90- degree wall collapse
A collapse in which one end of the collapsed floor is supported by an interior wall creating two void spaces.
A- frame collapse
A material other than water, aggregate, and cement used as an ingredient in concrete or mortar
Admixture
Large, roughly molded, sun-dried clay units of varying sizes
Adobe
Any of a variety of materials such as sand and gravel asses to a cement mixture to make concrete
Aggregate
The use of high air velocity to stop smoke movement
Air flow
A lightweight metal that is both malleable and nonmagnetic. This metal has good conductivity.
Aluminum
A set of regulations passes in 1990 hat includes among other things regulations requiring area of refuge for disabled people in multistory buildings
Americans with disabilities act
Large stores attached o the mall that have all of heir required exits independent of the mall
Anchor stores
Steel members that have two legs at right angles to one another
Angles
A truss with an arched upper chord and a straight bottom chord with vertical hangers between the two chords
Arched truss
An individual who has engaged in he design of buildings and who often supervises construction
Architect
An area of a building separated from other spaces by fire rated smoke barriers in which a tenable environment is maintained for he period of time that such areas may need to be occupied at the time of a fire
Area of refuge
A fireproof roofing shingle that is comprised of cement reinforced with asbestos fibers
Asbestos cement shingle
Stone cut in rectangular units
Ashlar Masonry
Asphalt coating that is combustible and used as a weather protective coating on galvanized steel walls
Asphalt Asbestos Protected Metal
A type of siding manufactured by saturating a dry felt with asphalt, then coating it with a fine glass fiber
Asphalt felt siding
A large open space within a structure connecting two or more floors
Atria
The vertical spread of fire on the exterior of a multistory building from one floor to the floors above via convection and radiation
Autoexposure
A phenomenon in which a combustible material ignites spontaneously without the application of a flame or spark
Autoignition
Standpipe system attached to a water supple capable of supplying the system demand at all times
Automatic wet standpipe system
A joist that generally runs in the same direction as a beam and forms a lightweight, long-span system, used as floor supports and built-up roofing supports.
Bar joist
A structural member that transmits forces perpendicular to such forces to the reaction points.
Beam
A line of columns in any direction.
Bent
A structural system that uses diagonal members to provide bracing against lateral wind and earthquake loads.
Braced frame
Diagonal member that supports what would otherwise be a cantilever.
Bracket
Consists of an exterior wythe of brick directly mortared or parged to an inner wythe of concrete masonry unit (CMU)
Brick and Block composite wall
The quantity of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 pound of water 1°F at the pressure of 1 atmosphere and temperature of 60°F.
BTU
Made of steel plates and angles riveted together, as distinguished from one rolled from one piece of steel.
Built-up girder
Mass of masonry built against a wall to strengthen it. Necessary when a vault or an arch places a heavy load or thrust on one part of a wall.
Buttress
Measured in Btu; the amount of heat required to raise 1 pound of water 1°F.
Caloric Value
Upward rise
Camber
A beam supported at one end only, rigidly held in position at that end.
Cantilever beam
A type of construction in which an overhang is supported from only one end where one floor extends beyond and over a foundation wall.
Cantilevered
A wall built of two wythes (a single vertical thickness of masonry) separated by a space for rain drainage or insulation.
Cavity or hallow wall
The center point at which a body would be stable, or balance, under the influence of gravity.
Centroid
The outside members (top and bottom) of a truss, as opposed to the inner “webbed members.”
Chord
A structural member that transmits a compressive force along a straight path in the direction of the member.
Column
Built up of different parts, pieces, or materials.
Composite
Two different masonry materials, such as brick and concrete block, used in a wall and designed to react as one unit under load
Composite Wall
Direct pushing force, in line with the axis member; the opposite of tension.
Compression
A load acting on a very small area of the structure’s surface; the exact opposite of a distributed load.
Concentrated load
A beam supported at three or more points. It is considered structurally advantageous because if the span between two supports is overloaded, the rest of the beam assists in carrying the load.
Continuous beam
No external braces involved; bracing is done within the core of the structure
Core construction
Any wall at right angles to any other wall; the walls should brace one another.
Cross wall
A study of information that has been gathered as part of a prefire plan to identify specific construction issues/concerns and interactions
Prefire analysis
A document developed by gathering general and detailed data used by responding personnel to determine the resources and actions necessary to mitigate anticipated emergencies at a specific facility.
Prefire planning
A solid or hollow masonry unit of clay mixed with sand, which is molded into a small rectangular shape while in a plastic state.
Brick
Regulates the actual design and construction of new buildings, providing for minimum levels of health and safety. Regulates the level and amount of fire protection in a new structure.
Building code
A shaft of concrete placed under a building column or wall extending down to bedrock
Caisson
The hallow portions of the core of a concrete block
Cells (concrete)
An engineer who specializes in the design of parking lots, drainage areas, and roadways.
Civil engineer
A type of steel used in the construction of cables that are sometimes used to brace failing buildings or as tendons in tensioned concrete. It fails at 800°F (427°C).
Cold-drawn Steel
A material built up of different parts, pieces, and materials intended to act as a single unit.
Composite material
Precast hollow or solid structural block. Sometimes referred to as cinder block.
Concrete masonry unit (CMU)
Occupational health and safety regulations that apply to construction sites. These include provisions to prevent falls and protection from being hit or crushed.
Construction safety regulations
Grooved ridged material, often metal.
Corrugation
Internal bracing that transfers the lateral earth pressures between opposing walls through compressive struts.
Crosslot bracing
Concrete that is hardened to full strength.
Cured
The explosive burning of heated gaseous products of combustion when oxygen is introduced into an environment whose oxygen supply has been depleted due to fire.
Backdraft
Low-density fiberboard made of wood fibers or sugar cane residue.
Bagasse
Fiberglass or rock wool insulation with various thicknesses; it may or may not have a paper covering.
Batt insulation
The hot, buoyant gases that collect at the very top of a room.
Ceiling layer
Fiberboard in which holes have been punched.
Combustible acoustical tile
The transfer of heat within an object or between objects through direct contact.
Conduction
The transfer of heat through circulation within a medium such as a gas or a liquid.
Convection
A fire protection system intended to protect materials that can be damaged by water; it uses carbon dioxide to suppress the fire.
Carbon Dioxide system
Gaseous fire extinguishing agent that does not leave a residue when it dissipates.
Clean agent system
Subdivision of a building into small areas so that fire or smoke is confined to the room or section in which it originates.
Compartmentation
Rapid involvement of a fire situation that goes beyond the normal attack situations that fire departments encounter.
Conflagration
The amount of external radiant heat energy (measured in watts per square centimeter) below which a flame front will cease to propagate.
Critical Radiant Flux (CRF)
A wooden structure in which all vertical studs in the exterior bearing walls extend the full height of the frame from sill to roof. No firestops are present within the walls.
Balloon frame
A type of siding that uses vertical strips of wood to cover joints.
Batten
A structural member laid on the subfloor where the vertical studs are installed.
Bottom plate
Braces placed between parallel-frame members to prevent movement from their vertical axes.
Bridging
To cut off the corners of a timber to retard ignition.
Chamfer
Wood chips that are glued together to make flat sheets. Often used in the floor construction of mobile homes.
Chipboard
Grooved panels utilized on industrial buildings of wood or steel framing; it poses an electrical hazard from stray electrical wires or lightning.
Corrugated metal siding
A non-load-bearing wall that carries no weight other than its own. It is installed only to keep out the weather.
Curtain wall
An iron box built into a wall to receive the end of a girder.
Cast iron box
A wooden heavy timber column that has been cut at an angle (beveled) on each of the corners to make it more difficult for fire to ignite the column at that location.
Chamfered column
A structure that presents severe exposure problems that are capable of initiating a conflagration—a large, multiple-building fire that is not easily contained.
Conflagration breeder
A series of projections, each one stepped progressively outward from the vertical face of the wall as it rises up to support a cornice or overhanging member above.
Corbelled
A freestanding wall unsecured at the top that acts like a cantilever beam with respect to lateral loads, such as wind or a hose stream.
Cantilever wall
Includes plain concrete, reinforced concrete, and post-tensioned concrete. This concrete is molded in the location in which it is expected to remain.
Cast-in-place concrete
Hollow wall in which wythes are tied together with steel ties or masonry trusses
Cavity wall
Void space between the top floor ceiling and the roof.
Cockloft
Two different masonry materials, such as brick and concrete block, used in a wall and designed to react as one unit under load.
Composite wall
Concrete placed over the first-floor wood floors for fire resistance or to provide sanitary floors.
Concrete topping
The masonry cap on top of a wall.
Coping
A projecting decorative (ledge) at the top of a masonry wall.
Cornice
A horizontal line of masonry
Course
Any wall at right angles to any other wall; the walls should brace one another.
Cross wall
A joist that generally runs in the same direction as a beam and forms a lightweight, long-span system, used as floor supports and built-up roofing supports.
Bar joist
Plates fewer than 6 inches in width; may be square or round.
Bars
A large hollow column built from steel plates.
Box column
A large girder, which is hollow, like a box column, and often used for highway bridges.
Box girder
A tee where the end of the cutoff is thickened.
Bulbtee
An upright partition that divides a ship into compartments and is meant to prevent the spread of leakage or fire.
Bulkhead
A wide flange beam that has been cut in half in a zig-zag pattern and then welded back together in an offset manner, creating a new, deeper beam.
Castellated beam
Noncombustible material often used for friable construction.
Cement-asbestos board
Steel structural component that has a square U-shaped cross section.
Channel
Special high-strength, cold-drawn steel cables. Also referred to as strands or tendons.
Cables
A process of placing fluid concrete into molds, generally called forms, in which the concrete is permitted to harden to a certain shape.
Casting
Small devices designed to keep the rods up off the surface of the form so concrete will flow underneath.
Chairs
Columns that use steel and concrete combined into one unit.
Composite and combination columns
Buildings in which different load-bearing materials are used in different areas of the building.
Composite Construction
Process for casting or pouring concrete without interruption from start to finish.
Continuous casting
Pouring concrete continuously as forms move upward so that continuous casting may be accomplished.
Continuous Slipforming
In terms of construction materials, a naturally produced plastic from renewable, living sources (e.g., starches, wood), instead of nonrenewable sources such as oil.
Biopolymers
PV systems that are incorporated into the building itself in the form of either PV shingles or PV wall panel systems.
Building-integrated Photovoltaics
A composite material composed of clay, straw, sand, and earth; similar to adobe; typically laid in courses.
Cob
Brick and mortar filling between studs utilized as a makeshift fire barrier.
Brick nogging
The deterioration of a product by heating to high temperatures.
Calcination
Smoke that falls downward
Cold smoke
A building or portion of a building within which hazardous materials are allowed to be stored, dispensed, used, or handled in quantities not exceeding the maximum allowable quantities.
Control area
A single building enclosing a number of tenants, including retail stores, drinking and dining establishments, entertainment facilities, offices, and other similar uses where the tenants have an opening on to one or more malls
Covered mall
A collapse in which one end of the floor is still supported while the other end is unsupported. Voids can be created in such situations.
Cantilever floor collapse
Often associated with brick veneer non-load-bearing walls, but also including other masonry walls. The wall falls straight down.
Curtain wall collapse
The weight of a building; it consists of the weight of all materials of construction incorporated into a building.
Dead load
The deformation or displacement of a structural member as a result of loads acting on it.
Deflection
Wall bounding a tenant space.
Demising wall
A floor designed to stiffen a building against wind and other lateral loads such as earthquakes.
Diaphragm floor
A force that is perpendicular to the plane of the section but does not pass through the center of the section.
Eccentric load
A pump that removes water from the ground or excavations that hinder construction from an area of the site.
Dewatering pump
A subcontractor hired by the contractor to oversee all electrical installation
Electrical contractor
An engineer who specializes in the design of lighting, power, telecommunications, and emergency power of a structure
Electrical engineer
That portion of a means of egress that is separated from all other spaces of a building or structure by construction or equipment as required to provide a protected way of travel to the exit discharge.
exit
That portion of a means of egress that leads to an exit.
Exit access
That portion of a means of egress between the termination of an exit and a public way.
Exit discharge
The “expected” area of sprinklers that will activate as anticipated by the sprinkler design standard; essentially the projected size of the fire.
Demand area
The unit rate of water application to an area or surface; expressed in gpm/ft2 [(L/min)/m2].
Density
An automatic fire extinguishing system that discharges a dry chemical agent.
Dry chemical system
Adequate exits within a building.
Egress
A descriptor for lumber with tongues and grooves at the ends
End matched
In the construction trade, laminated timbers. In this text, wood modified from its natural state.
Engineered wood
Balloon-frame structure finished to resemble post and frame construction.
English Tudor
Connects the girders and imparts some lateral stability under normal conditions; resembles a big staple.
Dog iron
Thicker section of floor on top of columns to assist in resisting the natural tendency of the floor to shear off at the column.
Drop panel
Valve that senses a sudden increased flow, as from a broken line, and shuts off flammable gas.
Excess flow valve
A type of fast response sprinkler capable of providing fire suppression of specific high- challenge fire hazards
Early suppression/ fast response (ESFR)
Hallways, corridors, passages, or tunnels used as exit components and separated from other parts of the building in accordance with NFPA 101: Life Safety Code.
Exit passageway
The end of a joist that is cut at an angle to permit the joist to fall out of a wall without damaging the load-bearing wall.
Fire cut
The potential fuel available for a fire in a building.
Fire load
The ability of a material to avoid ignition, combustion, and the thermal effects of fire.
Fire resistance
Wall with a fire-resistive rating and structural stability that separates buildings or subdivides a building to prevent the spread of fire.
Fire wall
Beam supported at two points and rigidly held in position at both points. This rigidity may cause collapse of a wall if the beam collapses and the rigid connection does not yield properly.
Fixed beam
Composite of a steel plate or plywood sandwiched between two beams.
Flitch plate girder
The lower division of a building that serves to transmit and anchor the loads from the superstructure directly to its earth or rock, usually below ground level.
Foundation
Another name for a gusset plate in a lightweight wood truss.
Gang nail
A beam that supports other beams
Girder
A connection that depends on the weight of the building to hold it in place.
Gravity connection
All of the structural elements of a building and the connections that support and transfer the loads.
Gravity resistance system
A series of closely spaced beams designed to carry a particularly heavy load.
Grillage
Connecting plate made of a thin sheet of steel used to connect the components of the truss.
Gusset plate
A masonry unit that overlaps two or more adjoining wythes of masonry to tie them together
Header
The rate at which the potential heat in a fuel is released.
Heat release rate (HRR)
When describing wall construction, a wall that acts as one unit (good bonding exists between bricks, blocks, and mortar).
Homogeneous
Components of a hurricane resistance system that prevent uplift of the components of a structure, including galvanized steel straps used to connect roof trusses to stud walls and anchor bolts used to connect stud walls with sill and sole plates.
Hurricane bracing
The effect of a moving load upon a stationary structure.
Impact load
A truss incorporating a single compression member; it is inverted because the compression member extends downward.
Inverted king post truss
A Beam; Wooden 2 × 8’s, 2 × 10’s, or 2 × 12’s that run parallel to one another and support a floor or ceiling and are supported in turn by larger beams, girders, or bearing walls.
Joist
An arrangement of braces between columns that resembles the letter “K.”
K-Bracing
Metric unit approximately equivalent to one Btu.
Kilojoules (kJ)
A unit for measuring the energy release rate of a fire.
Kilowatt (KW)
1,000 pounds force
KIP
A wall typically found in the top floor of a wood-frame home with a peaked roof. This short wall “squares off” the triangular area at the edge of the room where the sloping roof meets the floor.
Knee wall
A force that acts on a structure from a horizontal direction, such as wind or seismic forces.
Lateral impact load
A wood board typically attached to a wall’s studs that is used to support wood joists.
Ledger board
A collection of lightweight structural components joined in a triangular unit that can be used to support either floors or roofs.
Lightweight truss
The horizontal beam that forms the upper structural member of an opening for a window or door and supports part of the structure above it.
Lintel
The weight of the building contents
Live load
Force or other action that results from the weight of all building materials, occupants and their possessions, environmental effects, differential movement, and restrained dimensional changes.
Load
Any wall that carries a load in addition to its own weight.
Load-bearing wall
A very large structure
Megastructure
A unit for measuring the energy release rate of a fire.
Megawatt (MW)
The tendency of a force to rotate or twist a structural member.
Moment
A structural system that utilizes special “moment” connections between columns and beams to resist rotation due to lateral loads such as earthquakes and wind.
Moment frame
A construction technique in which all successive poured concrete castings are joined together so that the structure seems to be like one piece of stone.
Monolithic concrete
When any change is to be made in the foundation of an existing wall, the wall must be supported.
Needle beam
The line along which the length of the beam does not change.
Neutral axis
A wall supporting no load other than its own weight
Non-load bearing wall
A beam that projects beyond its support, but not far enough to be a cantilever.
Overhang beam
The connection points joining ties, struts, and chords in a truss.
Panel points
Non-load-bearing enclosing wall on framed buildings.
Panel wall (Curtain wall)
A truss in which both the upper and lower chords are parallel to each other.
Parallel-chord truss
A non-load-bearing wall that subdivides spaces within any story of a building or room.
Partition wall
A load-bearing wall that is common to two structures
Party wall
A short column of masonry, usually rectangular in horizontal cross section, used to support other structural members.
Pier
A masonry column projecting from one or both faces of the wall in which it is located.
Pilaster
A description for structural elements that are connected by simple connectors such as bolts, rivets, or welded joints.
Pinned
Design based on connections that redirect overloads to other sections of the building
Plastic design
Heavy riveting of girders to columns from the top to the bottom of the frame.
Portal bracing
A concrete member that is cast and cured in a place other than its final position in the structure.
Precast
A type of wall that acts as a vertical cantilever when it is being erected and is braced by tormentors or temporary bracing poles
Precast concrete tilt slab wall
A designation of the HRR; refers to the rate at which fuel will burn
Q
A truss with two compression members
Quests post truss
Diagonal bracing columns
Rakers
The response in structures to the imposed loads, which are generally developed at the supports.
Reaction
In concrete masonry construction, steel reinforcement that is embedded in such a manner that the two materials act together in resisting forces.
Reinforced concrete
A load that is applied intermittently
Repeated load
Structural frame in which all columns and beams are rigidly connected. There are no hinged joints, and the angular relationship between beam and column members is maintained under load.
Rigid frame
A phenomenon in wood trusses in which differences in moisture levels between the upper and lower wood truss chords cause the truss to bend and create a rise in the roof.
Rising roof
A wall composed of inner and outer wythes of coursed masonry. The space between the wythes is filled with random masonry sometimes mixed with mortar.
Rubble masonry wall
The ratio of the strength of the material just before failure to the safe working stress.
Safety Factor
A water-soluble mixture used in the past as mortar; when water is applied, the mortar can be washed away from the wall.
Sand-lime mortar
A type of floor in which floor girders are set on anchor boxes in walls and caps attached to columns. A wood cleat or steel dog-iron similar to a big staple is used to provide minimal stability. Often used in heavy-timber construction.
Self-releasing floor
Another term for dead load
Self-weight
