==== ==== Cรกlculo de estructuras: http://www.ingeniero-de-caminos.com/2011/04/calculo-de-estructuras.html ==== ==== If you are like me, an engineer with some years' experience working in a drawing office, then you know the value of what you do is often tied in the calculations. Many of us say how we specialize in certain types of designs but can you show it? How do you prove it? Calculations are the cornerstone of your credentials as an engineer. From the very first time, I walked into a drawing office to start my career as a graduate Structural engineer, I realized I knew nothing about calculations, my mind was a blank. I knew only what I had submitted in my tutorials at university. I knew nothing about the considerations and preparation I should undertake in my professional role. I had theory but no confidence. I had my eighth edition Steel Designer's Manual (1978) as my preferred model. I was put straight to work checking calculations in the QA department for seismic designs; calculations that streamed in from over forty engineers. Remember, this was in the days before desktop computers. I saw a variety of styles of the penand-paper tradition. My first two years in QA checking was an interesting experience that I can appreciate now. As much as there are differences in people's character, so is there in their calculations. I felt I was often chasing their personalities and the simple questions became confrontational at times. We had the lazy, the scruffy, the clean, the detailer, the late ones, the incomplete ones, the defensive, the nonchalant and the brilliant. Clearly, there was no one rule to follow. I was drawn to one particular engineer's work for his excellence, his brevity and ability to educate me in what he was doing, on paper. I asked him to teach me how I should prepare calculations in such a fashion. He gave me analytical tasks to do and I learned how to use design tables, apply Hardy Cross method, sub-frame analysis and wall-plate bracket designs and the idea was to learn how to present it, to his satisfaction. What he taught me are still the same principles I follow today when I prepare calculations. As my confidence grew I thought everybody would be striving for the same goals too. How wrong I was. More than twenty five years on, the situation has not improved. My concern is what will we expect in another 25 years' time? What do engineers believe about calculations, their roles and responsibilities to the future? Engineers do not even talk about calculations. In over 25 years experience working across the globe, from UK to S. Korea and USA to Middle East, it is an embarrassment of silence. It is a taboo subject, likely political, personal and highly selective. It is something that divides the generations rather than unites. Calculations are intimate to the way we work, the way we think and the way we present ourselves to our peers. How do we pass the baton to the newer generation? What can we do to inspire a future generation to a profession in engineering? When I broach the subject of calculations, I am not talking about the analysis, the theory or the
structural analysis packages, I am referring to the work practice in the preparation of it. The introduction of desktop computers has transformed the power to analyze complex and simple problems to an extraordinary degree but unfortunately we have not agreed to a methodology that evolves from the pen-and-paper traditions acceptably. So while designers and managers have accelerated their productivity with the power of computers, the engineers have been blinded by the opportunity to over-analyze and under-deliver the calculations. Engineers are becoming analysts rather than potential leaders of projects. Consider the following scenario: A typical calculation designs the concrete and steel components of a modularized piperack design. It is a ring binder of filed results, say 400 pages enclosed. These endless streams of pages are printed from a variety of applications used in the analysis. The engineer has worked, in isolation, for a period of three months and has finally gotten around to preparing his work for checking although pages are not signed or initialed. The narrative is missing, and 75% of the paperwork is focused on the inputs. The checker performs a 10% check, so as to meet the deadline that gets missed. Is there anything wrong with that picture? The initial good intentions of completing calculations on time are gone. What was the value of the calculation to the team? I recently asked a group of engineers a series of simple questions and the results was astonishing. It seems 80% of engineers who spend 80% of their time doing calculations, say they hate it! Can you imagine when I told them I loved it? I told them that in the above example of the modularized piperack design, this could be completed in two weeks and 40 pages, into a single document in MS Word. How or why would anyone want to do that? A calculation completed in two weeks and 40 pages, into a single document in MS Word? Just reading that last sentence will throw up many defenses. It is not intended as a criticism, it is an opportunity to share knowledge and find a common path missing in our current work practices. Many will argue they do not intend, or feel compelled, to change their methods. Change is not required for the individual, it is required for the future of the engineering profession and our obligation to future generations. Change is hard but often easier than you think too. We exist in comfort zones and experience little challenges to an evolved defaulting method of working. Change does not require all of us all to change but that only enough of us do evolve then the rest will follow. We are a highly mobile workforce, getting moved from project to project with difference faces, different expectations and different team cultures. Engineers should have a portfolio of design examples for presentation to the new team, new clients, or a prospective employer. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Robert_Mote
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Cรกlculo de estructuras: http://www.ingeniero-de-caminos.com/2011/04/calculo-de-estructuras.html ==== ====