What are structural applications?
Generally engineers make a distinction between structural and non-structural applications. Applications are considered structural where a global or partial failure of the given element would lead to a subsequent failure of other elements accompanied by loss of human life or heavy material damages. As an example, industrial floors on ground are non-structural applications as cracking of the slab will not be followed by a collapse of the whole building. On the other hand a raft would be considered to be a structural element as such a subsequent collapse could happen.
