DESIGN CONSTRAINTS

Constraints are the rules or limitations through which design is conceived and created. These limitations

can be self-imposed, conceptual necessities, client directives, cost influenced, etc. Each constraint defines

a subset of the set of all possible designs in which it is satisfied. When several constraints are specified, it

is only the possibilities within the intersection of all the subsets that we are interested in. This intersection

becomes smaller as more constraints are added. Constraints are important to the design process because

they limit the size of a design space by forcing the exclusion of unacceptable alternatives.

In this project, the design constraints were divided into two categories. The quantitative constraints which

are measured by quantity using engineering methods such as estimation and the qualitative constraints

which cannot be measured through methods but categorized based on the designer’s observation and

consideration. The following are the constraints that are contemplated in the design of the structure.

QUANTITATIVE CONSTRAINTS

 Economic Constraints

The economic constraint of the project deals with allocation of resources as well as the budget of

the project. If the budget is improperly allocated, this would cause negative impact on the project’s

success in terms of quality, safety, functionality and performance. It is the designers’ duty to create

a project that suffice the required strength and durability will minimizing the cost of it by finding

alternative solutions and to come up with a design suitable to the client’s interest.

 Environmental Constraints

Environmental constraint considers the uncertainty of the effects of climate change. The proposed

project is near at coastline in which wind loads are considered. There is a possibility that
 earthquake forces may or may not occur which can affect the cost of the project considering its

design strength and life which are directly related to the cost of the project.

 Constructability Constraints

Constructability constraint deals with the duration needed to finish the project. This is one of the

factors that affects the cost of the project. The designers will determined which trade off would

require lesser amount of man-hour for construction

 Serviceability Constraints

The serviceability limit state is the design to ensure a structure is comfortable and useable. This

includes vibrations and deflection, as well as cracking and durability. The factor of serviceability

that the designers take into consideration is the deflection of the beam because

QUALITATIVE CONSTRAINTS

 Aesthetics Constraints

Beauty is exposed by a complete and well-constructed building. This constraint depends on a

person’s appreciation of art, beauty and good taste. It is considered as a qualitative constraint. It

depends on what a person thinks which design is more presentable.

 Sustainability Constraints

Sustainability is referred to as the condition in which a building was maintained and was still

considered usable. Is it possible for the structure to exceed its limit and be considered fit for

occupancy?

In the process, the designers will only focus on the quantitative constraints in which trade-offs that are

enumerated in the next section will be assessed and ranked according to which is best.
TRADE OFFS

Design Trade-off strategies are always present in the design process. In each given constraint, trade-offs

are provided by the designers in which they are evaluated according to their effectivity. These trade-offs

have a notable effect on the proposed design of the structure. The designers came up with three different

structural materials in which beams were composed as their trade-offs.

Beams

A beam is a horizontal structural member that carries loads perpendicular to its surface, shear load and

sometimes horizontal loads. It is one of the major components of building structures. These loads tend to

make the beam bend. The loads applied to the beam result in reaction forces at the beam’s supports.

These loads are equal to the reaction forces on the supports making an equilibrium. Beams are classified

according to end support, cross section, equilibrium condition, geometry, length and material

REINFORCED CONCRETE BEAM

Reinforced concrete is a composite material in which steel is embedded to concrete in such a manner that

the two materials act together in resisting forces. The concept behind it is that concrete’s relatively low

tensile strength and ductility are counteracted by the inclusion of reinforcement which is the steel because

of having higher tensile strength or ductility.

PRESTRESSED CONCRETE BEAM

Prestressed concrete is a structural material in which the reinforcing steel bars are stretched and anchored

for it to compressed which increases its resistance to stress. The concept of prestressed concrete is to

overcome concrete’s weakness in tension. Prestressing diminished the number of design limitations for

standard concrete structures which includes the span and load and permitting the building of roofs, floors,

bridges, and walls having long unsupported spans.

FIBER REINFORCED CONCRETE BEAM

Fiber Reinforced Concrete is a composite material which is consist of mixtures of cement, mortar or

concrete discontinuous, discrete, uniformly dispersed suitable fibers. These fibrous materials increase the

integrity of the structure. These fibers are uniformly distributed and randomly oriented. Included are steel

fibers, glass fibers, synthetic fibers and natural fibers. Concrete reinforced with fibers are much cheaper

than hand-tied rebars but still increases tensile strength. It is important to consider the shape, dimension

and length of fiber because it will affect the tensile strength of the concrete.

Raw Designer’s Ranking

Each of the three trade-offs will be considered to satisfy the given constraints. By making the client choose

which design is considered the best, the designers used the model on trade-off strategies in engineering

design by the process as follows, scaled the criterion’s importance from 0 to 5, 5 being the highest and

likewise, to satisfy the ability of the criterion it was scaled also from 0 to 5, and also 5 being the highest
Computation of ranking for ability to satisfy criterion of materials:

𝑯𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒗𝒂𝒍𝒖𝒆−𝑳𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓 𝒗𝒂𝒍𝒖𝒆

%𝒅𝒊𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 = 𝒙 𝟏𝟎 Equation 1
𝑯𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒗𝒂𝒍𝒖𝒆

𝑺𝒖𝒃𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒌 = 𝑮𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒌 − (%𝒅𝒊𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆) Equation 2

The Governing rank is the subjected value which is set by the designer. The designer chooses which of the

following constraints are much significant than the others.