Have you ever heard about Floating Column in buildings? If not read this

Do you what is the difference between a floating column and normal column?

Let me first explain the difference between a column and floating column.

What is Column?

“It’s a vertical member which transfers the loads from beam to foundation”. It is one of the important structural member.

What is Floating Column?

“It is a vertical member. Which transfers the load from beam to another beam”. It is also an important structural member.

Basically what happens about the load transfer, in any building, for example, the load transfer from slab to beams to columns and then to the foundation.

(In the Floating columns, the load was considered as a point load.) This is the major difference between a column and a floating column. Because over-all major factor is load in the whole analysis and design of the structure.

Why we need to use the floating column in today ongoing projects.

It can be used in multi-storey building construction for residential, industrial or commercial purposes. In commercial buildings, there might be a need for a conference hall or banquet hall on the lower floors.

These multi-storey residential buildings need ample of parking or open spaces below. In multi-storey residential to accommodate for the number of car parking places and the turning radius, some of the columns from the floors above create a problem. In these cases, these types of floating columns should be designed. Normal columns is also called a non-floating column when we compare Floating column and Normal column.

The figure below shows an example of a floating column.