Structures from first principles!
High above St. Lawrence River, on a hot sunny day in August, 1907, workers were working on the Quebec bridge when suddenly, the sound of twisting metals pierced the air, and the giant cantilever bridge under construction failed, crashing into the river with enormous force, such that people miles away in Quebec City believed an earthquake had hit.
The reading and interpretation of structural engineering drawings is a much-underrated skill. A skill that is often not taught but learnt through frequent exposure to structural engineering contents and a drive to fully understand them. In simple form, a structural drawing can be defined as any drawing consisting of plans or set of plans and details explicitly showing how a building or structure will be constructed
Many problems of long spanning in structural engineering can be resolved through the use of steel trusses. These days, long span structures are very popular– from sport arena roofs to auditorium galleries, airport terminals, railway stations etc….
There is no consensus on a universal definition for tall buildings, even in design and practice, the definition of what should be classified as high-rise, medium and low-rise is ambiguous….
A properly designed foundation must deliver these loads to the soil without overstressing the soil which could otherwise cause excessive settlement or shear failure of the bearing soil. In-order to avoid overstressing the soil geotechnical engineers and structural engineers must determine the bearing capacity of the soil upon which the structure is to be founded.
The design of piled foundation unlike other foundation types largely falls within the remit of a geotechnical engineer with little assistance from the structural engineer. The first step requires the geotechnical team to conduct a detailed site investigation
For projects that requires deep foundations, the piles would be one of the first considerations at the concept design stage. The structural designer is expected to consider during the course of the project development, the type of piling that would be required, the proposed sizes
This article presents the design of cellular raft foundation, a spread foundation arrangement with two way interlocking ground beams with a ground bearing slab in contact with the soil and a suspended slab at the top surface…
Somewhere in Manhattan, a team of carpenters, welders and labourers were secretly working through the night, retrofitting steel connections under the directive of one of America’s finest Highrise structural designer, in a race to salvage the world’s 7th Tallest building. The skyscraper was meant to be a structural masterpiece but instead was poised to become one of the greatest engineering disasters of all time. Hurricane season was approaching and even a moderate storm would put the lives of over 200k people at risk
Steel portal frames are the most common and cost-effective structural solutions for single-storey buildings with gable-pitched roofs. In fact, about 50% of the steelwork in the U.K is used up in the construction of single-storey buildings, of which portal frames form the greater part…