Have any of you consulting engineering firm principals/owners placed your personal assets (home, investments, IRA, etc.) in a revocable trust as a mechanism to better shield them in the event of a potential lawsuit judgment exceeding your E&O liability insurance policy limits?
I know I am...
What is the story behind the all the job openings for structural engineering forensic work? Is there really that much litigation and insurance activity? Are these firms typically sweatshops that have constant turnover of engineers?
It would seem that such a niche engineering market would not...
Situation: Large skid mounted recip compressor founded on a 4'-0" thick moisture compacted ABC fill pad over native sand. Skid rails are buried almost up to strongback beams’ top flange with compacted ABC ramps as well. Skid has developed excess horz and axial movements (and some minor vertical...
In a 12F production tank, has anybody seen a detail where there is a single additional horizontal 18" long fillet weld to the roof/shell joint located over a vertical shell joint? The stated purpose of this detail is to provide a reinforced hinge such that the roof comes off in an explosion...
Consider a bar grating installed as say a two span continous beam over three supports.
Is bucking of the bearing bars over the interior beam (due to negative moment) an issue, since the cross bars are welded to the top of the bearing bars?
Thanks in advance for any opinion offered.
I am a structural engineer in a consulting engineering firm that specializes in oil and gas pipeline and facility design for large production companies. The brunt of our work is mechanical engineering and controls system engineering (piping and processes), but we also do structural, electrical...
What is the general consensus in regard to a what is deemed the "controlling" base shear in a lateral analysis?
Namely, say you have E = 20 kip seismic base shear (ultimate) and a W = 10 kip wind base shear (service). IBC load combinations would say 0.7E to convert it to a service load: E = 14...
If one is specifying a bridge crane with say a 20 ton pick weight, do you call out a 20 ton or 1.25 x 20 ton = 25 ton crane? I know that per OSHA a crane is proof loaded to 125% its rated capacity and am a little unclear about who applies the safety factor on the load rating. The actual crane...
I would like some input on the following issue.
I have a two story 190'x43' or so steel building. The roof is framed with bar joists with steel spandrels and columns and the floor is composite steel beams and girders with steel WF and tube columns. The lateral system is a steel OMRF at the...
I have two basic questions regarding the Seismic Provisions for Structural Steel Buildings if one is dumb enough to try an ASD design method.
Question 1: To do a "traditional" ASD design, is it correct to design to ASD load combinations (i.e. 0.7E) and then decrease the load by the prescribed...
If recently read in one source to specify the shank diameter and length of a nail so as to get the Z value you think you are. This is supposed to be due to the fact that "air gun" nails are not the same as "common" nails. Another source, talking about diaphragm shear values, said to go ahead and...
If one has a steeply sloped warm roof with metal deck roofing, and one wanted to calculate Ps (not Pf), would a roof valley be considered an "obstruction"? Namely, would it be appropriate to take the valley angle to compute Cs, not the rafter angle?
I recall that the old UBC used to have a Cv...
Would anybody wish to comment on the bar spacings called out in 2003 IBC Tables 1805.5(2) to (4) as compared to ACI 318-02 Section 14.3.5?
Namely, the IBC prescribes bar spacings from 32" to 72" o.c. in their concrete foundation wall tables whereas ACI Chapter 14 says 18" o.c. maximum.
Since...
What is the consensus regarding stamping the work of junior engineers at the firm. I have been asked to start stamping all the structural work in the office. It is good work and meets all the definitions of "responsible charge" so its no ethical dilemma there.
My problem is more philosophical...
Does anyone have any good ideas about providing a wood diaphragm chord in 3'-8" deep bottom bearing parallel chord wood trusses on a stud bearing wall? I normally design the stud wall top plate for this force, but am not happy with OSB diaphragm tension and compression forces going through the...
