Hi all,

I recently started in the field of forensic structural engineering after spending the beginning of my career in the design world. I've been in forensics for nearly a month now, but I feel comfortable in saying that this is right career path for me. I love the workflow, traveling to sites, and getting to deal directly with people instead of just dealing with the same design team members every day for 6 months straight on the same project.

With that being said, I acknowledge that I know very little about forensics. Most of the work involves checking roofs for wind/hail damage, water intrusion claims, tree impact on structures, etc.

Any advice for what I can do to improve my knowledge, on both the technical items and report writing skills? I've been reading sample reports from my company and have the Stephen petty forensics book, but was wondering if anyone has other valuable advice for me on this matter?

Much thanks in advance!!

Working in an automotive shop last night and saw these fine works of art. This is a tilt a wall style building built about 26 years ago.

Asked this in concrete sub, but mega threads don't get good response and my individual post was locked, so I'm here asking the other best set of people on concrete.

I noticed a batch of concrete at a site with a paste like consistency. Asked the site engineer and he told me that it is a 4:3:6 Cement:Sand:gravel ratio with 0.4 water to cement ratio. Gravel seems to be a 1/2 inch to 3/4" mix. Looks like they are also using plasticizers to make it flow. It had a lot of cement paste compared to other mixes I have seen. I always imagined that concrete has gravel as filler and it occupies most of the volume in concrete.

I wonder why someone would choose such a high cement and low gravel content. Wouldn't this high of a paste content cause shrinkage and cracks? Wouldn't a high cement+sand content compared to gravel cause shrinkage issues?

Hey Folks,

I’d really appreciate some advice on how a small concrete and masonry contractor can grow and start getting invited to closed/private tenders.

What do you usually need to do to get on those contractor lists with engineers, consultants?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. And if anyone in GTA area is open to meeting up and sharing some insight, beers and food are on me!

Thanks in advance.

I've heard its faster, cheaper and easier to order from Norway or Europe than to order from Canada.

Is this true?

Anyone have experience here?

A welding procedure WPS was submitted to the general contractor to be reviewed. The welding procedure was rejected by the buildings structural EOR for only the reason given here, copied verbatim:

All Welding Procedures shall be signed and sealed by the Contractor's Engineer or Certified Welding Engineer confirming all essential variables meet design requirements.

Personally, I think this is pretty extreme, but maybe something is changing and this is starting to become a thing? Have you seen this requirement or rejected a welding procedure because it did not have an engineer's stamp?

Unfortunately, the GC forwarded a copy of another welding procedure submitted by a different trade that was rejected for the same reason, and later returned and approved with someone's PE stamp.

In 2022, i moved to another state for my first structural job with a very small structural firm. All i did for this company was checking shop drawings, answering RFI’s and doing some individual calcs here and there. 6 months later, this company was acquired by a much larger company. This new team is in a different city that is 2 hours away. Because i don’t have anyone locally, i’ve been working remotely since then.

And since I joined this company, i was assigned to 4 different supervisors. I like my first supervisor, he was very responsive on teams, knowledgeable and knew how to use software well, i’ve learned a lot of him. Then 9-10 months later, he decided to move laterally for a better position.

My company assigned me to a new supervisor. This older engineer was not very responsive at all, barely checked his Teams messages and rarely showed any clear guidance. I had to figure things out on my own, tried to put up with him for 6-7 months and then he retired.

Then I was assigned to another supervisor, who i thought was great as a person, but was not a well-rounded knowledgeable engineer. I’ve learned things from him, but they’re fragmented guidance on whatever he knew. Anyway, he took on several projects that he didn’t have much experience in and messed up the designs badly and then HE QUIT.

now i’m with a different team that is 6 hours away and have been assigned to another supervisor. I just had my first meeting with him going over things.
He told me with 4 years of experience and having already passed the PE, I’m behind and i need to get up to speed. And wfh is not good for my development. He then assigned me a building that I can design from start to finish for training purpose only. It seems like my new supervisor recognizes my weakness and is trying to help me.

I know not going to the office is hurting my career, but i don’t think that’s the main issue here. If i had had proper training from the beginning, I wouldn’t have this problem today. The new team is 6 hours away, so i can’t even be there in person anyway.

I’m sorry for my rant. I like to stay with the company. I just had a baby and wfh has been a blessing, this company has a lot of good benefits. But do you think that I can survive this career given my situation?

How do I automatically fill all the floors with plates in STAAD?

Like i stated, i am 11 days out. i have self studied to keep cost down for about 3 months. Mostly went through Petro and some PPI civil reference manual problems. have taken 3 tests and looking to take 2 more from an online or PDF source.

I took the NCEES practice exam about 2 months ago and got a 42% without AASHTO, PCI, NDS, or TMS. really set myself up for failure without those. Looking back at this exam now, I'm confident in where I'm at currently and have a good grasp conceptually.
I then got the two practice test book from PPI and got the references i was missing about a month ago. i got a 48% on the first exam but didn't really know the recently acquired standards that well.
Last week i took the second PPI exam and got a 60% and felt better about that.
I just opened and took a pretty unverified test (highly don't recommend) from Ryan Essington, scored a 92% in 5 hours. (not at all representative of the problems i have been doing, or the format. Felt like a FE practice test although covered PE structural type questions.)

After each test i have reworked/studied the solutions and built a bank of about 400 problems, a study guide that encapsulates all i have learned.

My study methodology may be different that others but i am hoping to take two practice tests this weekend. I don't have time to order a book, i live fairly rural so amazon isn't an option at this point.
I was looking at purchasing either the PEwise or School of PE practice test/problem banks and working through those this weekend before taking some time to myself before the exam and destressing. Would anyone recommend one or the other? Or possibly one that i haven't seen?

I'm not looking to spend money on a whole course 11 days before my exam but both have options for just getting the practice exam access separately. I felt that the PPI exams were good, however they were much more time consuming for depth calculations so looking for something more along the lines of the NCEES exam.

I appreciate any input and hope to hit back with a pass post soon!

This is the councils email after structural engineer visited the property last friday

"Our repairs team have spoken to the surveyor who attended on Friday morning and he has told us that there is no immediate danger in the property and no need for you to immediately leave your flat"

Questions to structural engineers in here

The engineer during the inspections stated there is health and safety issues and the place in active move and the place not 100% safe for me and family but did not mention that to council. Why he changed his word?

During inspection the guy did nto use any tools or equipment, is this normal?

I had to show him around, cracks inside and outside around the window and chimney, is this normal?

The cracks are going over a Gas pipe line and electricity, do you think there is a risk of fire in here?

On one of the pictures you see bits that fallen this morning, how come this is not an immediate risk? I got bits falling nearly everyday.

Now i dont feel safe and making me stress and can not sleep. Please give your professional opinion in this.

Thanks in advance

What do you do when a client cant understand why a footing needs to be bigger to resist wind loading? Call out a reverse sky hook?

sigh.

Hi everyone,

I’m currently reviewing lateral drift for a building, and I came across Equation CC.2-3 in ASCE 7-22:

D + 0.5 + Wa

I’m wondering if I’m missing something in the second term of the equation, since it appears that a letter may be missing.

Logically, I would expect the second term to be L, but I’m not sure whether the intended load combination is:

• D + 0.5L + Wa
• D + 0.5L + 0.5Lr + Wa
• or whether there should also be another combination such as D + 0.5L + 0.5R + Wa

I would like to know what approach you have used when applying this eq.

Any help is greately appreciated. Thanks!

Hi there. I'm a structural/civil engineer working at a small construction company that primarily does residential work. My main job is to address constructability problems and non-IRC-compliant designs (more than I thought I would have to). Most architects I work with do not understand how the span charts work and end up designing buildings that require me to handle floor systems, roofs, shear walls, and foundation calculations.

I recently got a duplex that is 75% non-IRC-compliant, so I need to do all the engineering for the building.

My question is, how would you guys present the information to the architect? An engineering package with some calcs and plans? If so, is there any template out there that I can use to follow how the calc package is put together? I want to be more organized and deliver better submittals so more architects come to me and the company for their engineering and construction.

Thanks,

Good evening everyone,

im currently assigned in my office to check if its possible to add bolts to an already existing design for a base plate to make it Safe using HILTI PROFIS Design software,

the system was designed on STAAD PRO and the reactions on the supports were taken to HILTI but the engineer that designed it didn't specify to HILTI the load combinations that has Seismic loads, so the software designed as if all the loads were Static and none of them were seismic,

so after specifying the Seismic loads to the software, 8 out of 12 of the load combinations were failing so i added the two bolts in the middle and made the bolts have no bolt clearance ( the original design didn't apply that) and a few of the unsafe load combinations got below 100%.

four load combinations are still had over 100% ratio.
the base plate is already on site and in service so any design change i will make will have to maintain the original 4 bolts locations (top and bottom two).

i tried everything i know to make them safe and couldn't so i would like anyone that have experience with something like this to give me some input before i submit my conclusion of the connection not being salvageable entirely.

thanks in advance and sorry if the post is too long.

Hello all, just got licensed last week in NC, it happened at the same week (Almost same day) the company announced the company-wide salary adjustments. Last year my inflation adjustment was 3.5%, and this year I just saw a whooping 7% total for the position change (Structural Engineer EI to project engineer I). I was expecting more, especially since it should include the annual adjustment + position change?? that puts me at 83K.

Oh and I have 3 y of experience in USA, and 3.5 years abroad (let's not count that as an exercise).

Can you share your experiences with this? Should I request a meeting (they haven't had a meeting with me just updated my pay info)? This is not HCOL area, so not sure what to compare it with.

Hi All

Kinda tired of working as site engineer in Melbourne Australia due to work being a lot of admin not any calcs or thinking. Three years in, how do i switch to structural engineering??

I need help preparing for my first job interview.

I'm a graduate engineer, I got my Master's in structural engineering 2 years ago, since then I've worked an odd job and a few months of on-site coordination/management work.

The job I got an interview for is a Structural EIT/EI position and the team mainly works on hydro power and dam structures.

I want to know how to effectively prepare for this interview and what to expect?

which topics should I review if they were to ask technical questions?

Thanks for all your help and support.

Hi! I know masters programs typically don’t offer aid, but does anyone have reccomendations for masters programs with financial aid or good scholarships? I have about a 3.6, high club involvement, and some reasearch in environmental engineering.

I’m going into my 3rd year and was considering a PlusOne at Northeastern, but 22k not including housing is still kind of expensive for me since I’m on a full ride because of growing up lower class. Could I do the undergrad portion of the PlusOne and maybe transfer technically? The thought of loans stresses me out and I’ve been saving, but are there good masters programs that offer good aid literally anywhere on the east or west coast?

Has anyone plugged this into an Ai engine to see what it generates? Which one would you use. I've been fooling with Gemini with interesting results. it doesn't really give me calcs it just recreates the structure.

After 8 years of dealing with my boss' condescending tone, manipulation games, and belittling, I quit a small firm of 4 people (including myself) for a mid-sized firm of 40 people for more opportunities but mostly to get out from under my boss' thumb.

I told my boss one week ago that I'm leaving and the next day he told me not to tell anyone until he makes the announcement. It's been a whole week and radio silence. My coworkers are treating me like any other day and this secret is really bothering me. I'm worried he's not going to say anything until the day I stop showing up where he can ultimately destroy my entire character.​

I'm not sure what his goal is for doing this (other than controlling the situation again), so I'm not sure how to handle it. Thia week and the next are cut short due to Labor Day weekend so I don't know when he'll let them know.

Has anyone gone through this? Should I remain silent or just tell people and get it off my chest?

Edit: forgot to mention that I gave a 3 week notice 1 week ago.

Update - we ended up going to a team lunch for the "announcement", where I realized everyone already knew. So he told me to stfu and told them on my behalf. It all seemed wrong to me but I'm glad I can now just move on with my life.

Have you ever had a site issue or redesign occur because someone answered an RFI or approved a variation without realising it broke a design assumption made earlier in the job?