Container

CONTAINER STRUCTURES

Modular Structural Consultants, LLC (MSC) is one of the very few structural engineer firms in the United States specializing in shipping container building structural design. Our team leverages advanced technology, combined with extensive structural engineering knowledge, industry experience, and container design expertise, to ensure reliable and safe container structures. We design the container buildings according to the US building design codes, including International Building Code (IBC), design loads for building and other structures with ASCE 7, steel design with AISC 360 and AISI S100.

Intermodal shipping containers are made of strong and durable materials, suitable for building structures. Shipping containers can be repurposed for various building functions, including storage, workspace, living space, industrial, bathrooms and locker rooms, military and training facilities, emergency response facilities and multi-container buildings.

Entry Point Gantry Container Structure

40ft Stand Alone Container Tower

20ft Container with Wind Turbine Masts

20ft Container with Built-In Skid

53ft Conveyor Bridge Over an Interstate Highway

Self-Storage Building made of four hundreds 40ft HC container units.

Bowsers Castle Field - https://ggsportspark.com/good-game-sports-park-maps-and-playing-fields/

Paintball / Airsoft Buildings (Above & Below)

We do all container sizes. From the common ones 40ft High Cube (HC), 20ft HC, to the uncommon sizes such as 53ft HC.

Container Lifting Analysis

Shipping cargo containers are constructed in accordance with the international standard ISO 1496-1, which mandates rigorous structural design requirements. These containers must withstand a payload of approximately 63,000 pounds, equivalent to a uniform floor load of around 200 pounds per square foot. This load is supported by the container's framing system, which spans 40 feet without intermediate supports. Designed for stacking up to eight high, all loads are channeled to the four corner posts. Cargo containers must endure transportation loads in harsh open ocean weather conditions for extended periods. On the deck of a cargo vessel, they are exposed to high winds and significant horizontal loads generated by the vessel's rocking motions at sea. Notably, most US cargo containers originate from overseas and typically make a one-way trip. Afterward, these "fully tested" containers are sold and repurposed for alternative uses, such as building construction.

Container Computer Model

Shipping container structural members, wall and roof panels are made of high strength COR-TEN steel. The floor cross members, container side rails, beam headers and corner posts are made of various cross sections, some of them are in unique shapes. Side walls, front wall and roof are made of corrugated metal sheets in different shape profiles and thicknesses. Therefore, creating a computer model for container structure is the most challenging aspect in structural analysis. Most structural engineers adopt a design approach using equivalent cross sections by simplifying the geometries, also sometimes by omitting the panels' contribution as structural elements.

Modular Structural Consultants takes a different design approach. We create a finite element model (FEM), that closely mirrors actual geometries, thicknesses, cross section shapes of shipping container elements. Our finite element model is sophisticated yet versatile to adapt for building openings and structural modifications. We use digital wind tunnel software for generating wind loads for multi-container building with unusual configurations, such as L-shape, C-shape, any creative stacking, with roofs or parapets, All of these design approaches yield more accurate design and analysis results, benefiting our clients with economical and safe container structural designs.

[Above] FEM Result Validation - 40 ft and 20 ft Containers, Member Stresses Under Fully Loaded ~ 200 psf floor load.
ISO 1496-1 (6.2.2) Allowable stacking load for 1.8g = 17.1 ksi x 1.8 = 30.78 ksi.

[Above] FEM Result Validation - ISO 1496-1 (6.7.2) Side Loading 0.6 Pg ~ 108 psf side pressure

[Above] FEM Result Validation - 8 Stack Containers Under Fully Loaded 200 psf at every container.

Container Door FEM

Buckling Analysis

In engineering, buckling failure occurs when a structural member undergoes sudden collapse under high compression loads, despite the actual load being lower than the material's ultimate capacity. The buckling capacity of a structural member is influenced by various factors, including cross-sectional shape and size, member length and slenderness ratio, material properties, loading conditions and boundary conditions, making buckling analysis a complex topic. Accurate determination of buckling capacity is crucial when designing container buildings and performing container lifting analysis. In ISO container structures, buckling failure can occur at door posts, front corner posts, and additional posts in between. During container lifting with angled cables, the top rail may experience high compression forces.

[Below] Top Rail Buckling Analysis for Container Lifting

Our Design Sketches

We produce design sketches along with our engineering reports. We understand that most of our clients are not engineers, therefore we make an extra effort to create design sketches to summarize the design and analysis results into a format that easy to understand. Below are example of our design sketches from one of our actual projects