Tag: education

This article presents a method for calculating tributary areas of columns in irregular grid layouts with 7 simple steps. Tributary Areas Tributary area is a concept used by engineers to estimate design loads of structural elements subjected to vertical surface loading. The basic idea is to geometrically derive an approximation of how much area each […]

This article explains what tributary areas are, why they are important and presents a simple geometric method to calculate them. The chosen units displayed in the examples is expressed in meters, but all numbers are applicable in feet as well. How do columns work? The fact that columns are everywhere in buildings may not be […]