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CASE in Point
The Newsletter of the Structural Engineering Institute of ASCE Structural Columns
Don’t miss this opportunity to be part of the Structures 2013 Congress in the beautiful and historic city of Pittsburgh, from May 2-4, 2013. You are invited to submit session proposals and/or paper abstracts. Visit the SEI Website at www.asce.org/SEI for details about abstract and session proposals, as well as suggested topics and subtopics.
Key Dates
All Session and Abstract Proposals Due: June 12, 2012 Notification of Acceptance: September 18, 2012 All Final Publication Ready Papers: January 15, 2013 (no extensions)
ASCE 7 Committee
Call for Proposals for the 2016 Edition
Deadline extended to December 31, 2012
The Structural Engineering Institute (SEI) of ASCE is currently accepting proposals to modify the 2010 edition of ASCE 7, Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures Standards Committee to prepare the 2016 revision cycle of the standard. Interested parties may download the proposal form from the SEI Website at www.asce.org/SEI. The committee will accept proposals until December 31, 2012. For additional information please contact Jennifer Goupil, SEI Director, at jgoupil@asce.org.
This is the first hurricane conference to focus exclusively on topics of interest to professionals who design, engineer, regulate and build projects in hurricane affected regions. This event will bring together practitioners, educators, federal and state government officials, students, and business leaders from across the nation and around the world Hurricane engineering has evolved since Hurricane Andrew wreaked havoc on South Florida and Louisiana nearly 20 years How to Submit a Proposal For detailed instructions on how to upload a session proposal or paper abstract, visit the SEI Website at www.asce.org/SEI. Proceedings Authors of accepted abstracts are strongly encouraged to submit a 10-12 page final paper for inclusion in the proceedings. The proceedings will be copyrighted and published by ASCE. Questions? Contact Debbie Smith at dsmith@asce.org or 703-295-6095 For information on Sponsoring and Exhibiting, please contact Sean Scully at sscully@asce.org or 703-295-6276.
Errata
SEI posts up-to-date errata information for our publications at www.asce.org/SEI. Click on “Publications” on our menu, and select “Errata.” If you have any errata that you would like to submit, please email it to Paul Sgambati at psgambati@asce.org.
Save the Date
2012 Electrical Transmission and Substation Structures Conference Columbus, Ohio November 4-8, 2012
Mark your calendars now and plan to attend this forum where transmission and substation engineers can share technical knowledge and explore emerging issues, while bringing new engineers up to speed on core issues. For more information visit the ETS conference website at http://content.asce.org/conferences/ets2012/index.html.
Registration Now Open
Miami, Florida October 24-26, 2012
ago. Andrew taught us much about how these powerful storms affect our built environment. Much has changed in building codes, standards and products designed to resist the effects from strong hurricanes, and much more needs to be improved upon. Join the Applied Technology Council and the Structural Engineering Institute for this informative conference at the JW. Marriott Marquis in Miami, Florida, October 24-26, 2012. Visit the conference website at www.atc-sei.org/ for more information and to view the technical program.
The Structural Engineering Institute of ASCE recently established the SEI Fellow (F.SEI) grade of membership to recognize a select group of distinguished SEI members as leaders and mentors in the structural engineering profession. SEI welcomed many of the inaugural class of SEI Fellows at Structures Congress March 31 in Chicago. See the SEI website at www.asce.org/SEI for a complete list of the Inaugural Class members and more information on how to apply.
2013 Ammann Call for Nominations
The O. H. Ammann Research Fellowship in Structural Engineering is bestowed annually to a member for the purpose of encouraging the creation of new knowledge in the field of structural design and construction. The O. H. Ammann Fellowship was endowed in 1963 by O. H. Ammann, Hon.M.ASCE, and was increased in 1985 by Klary V. Ammann (widow of O. H. Ammann). The deadline for 2013 Ammann applications is November 1, 2012. For more information and to download an application visit the SEI website at http://content.seinstitute.org/inside/ammann.html.
New ASCE Structural Webinars Available
SEI partners with ASCE Continuing Education to present quality live interactive webinars on useful topics in structural engineering. Several new webinars are available:
Webinar Title Date Instructor
Antiquated Structural Systems June 14, 2012 Matthew Stuart
Damping and Motion Control in Buildings and Bridges
June 18, 2012 Brian Breukelman Preventing Bridge Damage During Earthquakes June 22, 2012 Mark Yashinsky A General Overview of ASCE 7-10 Changes to Wind Load Provisions June 28, 2012 William L. Coulbourne ASCE 7-10 Snow Load Provisions July 19, 2012 Michael O’Rourke Seismic Assessment and Design of Sewers July 20, 2012 Donald Ballantyne Pier and Beam Foundation Design for Wind and Flood Loads July 23, 2012 William L. Coulbourne Webinars are live interactive learning experiences. All you need deliver the training to your location, with minimal disruption is a computer with high-speed internet access and a phone. These in workflow – ideal for brown-bag lunch training. events feature an expert speaker on practice-oriented technical ASCE Webinars are completed in a short amount of time – and management topics relevant to civil engineers. generally 60 to 90 minutes – and staff can earn one or more Pay a single site fee and provide training for an unlimited PDHs for each Webinar. number of engineers at that site for one low fee, and no cost or Visit the ASCE Continuing Education website for more details lost time for travel and lodging. ASCE’s experienced instructors and to register: www.asce.org/conted.
Committee Activities
ASCE/SEI Disproportionate Collapse Mitigation New Standards Activity
The purpose of the proposed standards activity is to develop a national consensus standard for mitigating disproportionate collapse of building structures. Users of the standard would include, but not be limited to, design professionals, building officials, building owners and building users. The scope of the proposed standards activity is to develop a standard for disproportionate collapse mitigation of building structures and publish it as an ASCE standard. The content of the standard will be based on available technical information, including the technical documents produced by the SEI Technical Activities Division committee on disproportionate collapse, the GSA/DoD Guide, other available guides and standards, and published research papers and reports. Interested parties may submit an application to join this new committee via www.asce.org/codes-standards/applicationform/. For more information, please contact Lee Kusek, Codes and Standards Administrator, at lkusek@asce.org. ASCE/SEI 55-10 Tensile Membrane Structures and ASCE/SEI 17-96 Air-Supported Structures New Joint Committee
This new committee will combine the two standards, and eliminate duplication of requirements and removal of sometimes conflicting information. The scope of ASCE 55 includes frame-supported structures but is not all-inclusive. There is no known standard today for air-inflated structures, and there is confusion today with terms such as “membrane-covered” in the International Building Code. The new, combined standard would pertain to tensile membranes, air-supported membranes, air-inflated membranes, and frame-supported membranes. ASCE/SEI 55-10 will be the base template and will add relevant portions of ASCE 17-96. Interested parties may submit an application to join this new committee via www.asce.org/codes-standards/applicationform/. For more information, please contact Lee Kusek, Codes and Standards Administrator, at lkusek@asce.org.
CASE in Point
Do you know who your best clients are? Do you know where you should be focusing your marketing and sales efforts to maximize financial performance of your firm? You may be surprised. Under Foundation 7, Compensation, CASE Tool 7-1: Client Evaluation will help you answer those questions by analyzing the amount of work and profit for each client. 1) You will need the following information: a.Name of each client, along with a client abbreviation (the shorter the better). b.The revenue of each client, either broken down by year or a total. c.The total amount of expenses incurred for each client.
2) Input the information into the spreadsheet. Additional instructions are included on the “General Information” tab on the spreadsheet. 3) Once all of the information is populated, you can generate a graph showing the performance of each client. The horizontal axis will show the total revenue generated per client. The vertical axis will show the profit associated with each client by either a percentage or total. CASE Tool 7-1 is available at www.booksforengineers.com.
CASE is on LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a great virtual resource for networking, education, and now, connecting with CASE. Join the CASE LinkedIn Group today! www.linkedin.com.
You can follow ACEC Coalitions on Twitter – @ACECCoalitions.
ACEC’s 2012 Annual Convention and Legislative Summit
On April 16-18, a record 1,300 ACEC members attended the ACEC Annual Convention in Washington, D.C., meeting with 300 Senators, Congressmen, and Capitol Hill staffers to urge passage of long-term transportation, water/wastewater infrastructure, and energy legislation. 600-plus attended the black-tie Engineering Excellence Awards Gala, which recognized 147 preeminent engineering achievements from throughout the world. The Lake Borgne Surge Barrier – a $1.1-billion concrete and steel response to the death and destruction of Hurricane Katrina – was named the year’s most outstanding engineering achievement in the 46th Annual Engineering Excellence Awards. At nearly two miles in length and 26 feet high, the Lake Borgne Storm Surge Barrier outside New Orleans is the largest of its kind in the world. Tetra TechINCA led the design team for the project. ACEC’s Annual Convention also marks the induction of a new ACEC Executive Committee. Ted Williams, Executive Vice President of Landmark Engineering, Inc. in New Castle, Del., succeeded Terry Neimeyer as ACEC Chairman for 20122013 at the spring meeting of the ACEC Board of Directors. New members of the 2012-2013 Executive Committee are: Chairman-elect Gregs Thomopulos, Chairman/CEO of Stanley Consultants, Inc.; Ralph Christie, Jr., Chairman/ President/CEO, Merrick & Company; Michael Matthews, President/CEO, H&A Architects and Engineers; William Stout, III, Chairman/CEO, Gannett Fleming; and Peter Strub, Eastern Regional Vice President, TranSystems Corp. ACEC/Alabama Executive Director Renee Casillas is the new NAECE representative.
ACEC has embarked on an exciting new collaboration with the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) to host a nationwide continuing education management system known as the Registered Continuing Education Program at RCEP.net. As partners, ACEC and ASCE will establish an Independent Review Board to approve education providers while also providing excellent customer service to professionals tracking their Professional Development Hours (PDHs) and post-licensure education activities in the system. In addition, State Licensing Boards will use RCEP.net to ensure their licensees have complied with Continuing Professional Competency requirements. RCEP’s continuing education standards for Education Providers will follow NCEES Model Law, Model Rules, and Guidelines for Continuing Professional Competency. The Registered Continuing Education Program at RCEP.net is an interactive online system that recognizes education providers who adhere to rigorous continuing education standards. RCEP. net serves as a portal for thousands of educational offerings, searchable on the Master Calendar of activities, and the accompanying PDH records as reported by approved providers and issued to individual professionals. Professional Engineers and Surveyors can use RCEP.net to track their professional activities by storing certificates of completion issued by RCEP providers, uploading important professional documents, maintaining a complete PDH history through the self-reporting of outside activities, and downloading transcripts. RCEP’s educational offerings are given by Registered Providers that have been vetted against a set of established continuing education standards and thus can be reported to state licensing boards with confidence of acceptance. Visit www.rcep.net or contact Maria Buscemi at 202-682-4323 for more information.
CASE Business Practice Corner
If you would like more information on the items below, please contact Ed Bajer, ebajer@acec.org.
Email Retention Policy
An unofficial survey indicates many engineering firms opt for a 90 day limit on email retention, with some going as far as six months and some forever. Here are some factors to consider when and if a policy is established. Is there a policy just for email as opposed to all communications? If you anticipate legal action, you are bound by federal law to hold related emails for possible discovery. If you are working under a government contract, it may contain a regulation regarding retention of emails. A retention policy also may vary depending the substance of the email – whether it is financial, HR or client information. Once a policy is in place, however, it should be followed. Adherence to an inconsistent policy in the eyes of the court is even worse than having the wrong policy.
Inspection v Observation
Unless you plan to provide the actual services, you should avoid the use of the word inspect in describing your basic role of observation. If the owner has it in the contract, delete it and insert observation. If that cannot be done, then carefully define the word in definitions or scope of service so it clearly means observation. Clients have been known to use the word inspection when they really mean the normal level of contract administration. Inspections connote a more detailed examination and consequently more obligations than you bargained for. It could raise the standard of care and the liability implications are huge.
The Engineer during Construction
The job of the engineer during construction is to interpret and clarify for the contractor the requirements of the contract documents, and work with the contractor in developing the details to supplement the design documentation. The engineer undertakes to monitor various aspects of the work as it is completed. However, the engineer does not have control over the contractor’s work and is only able to review or spot check it as it is performed. The engineer is unable to give the owner absolute assurance that the contractor has done the work in accordance with the contract documents. The only real assurance the owner has is the integrity of the contractor. Owners should not expect engineers to protect them from the consequences of contractors that lack integrity.
CASE in Point
A Structural Engineer’s Manifesto for Growth
Part 3
By Erik Nelson, P.E., S.E.
This is the third installment of what I am calling my manifesto, which presents some of my thoughts about our profession and how we can grow as individual designers. For steps 1-11, please see Parts 1 and 2 in the April and May 2012 issues of STRUCTURE®.
12: Draw with a Pen
Sketch ideas of structural systems or buildings. Buy a sketchbook and use a pen, so that you cannot erase your mistakes. Mistakes are important reminders that you are fallible (like everyone else). The best preparation for life as an engineer is the understanding of our ignorance. In the terrific book, Structural Engineering: The Nature and Theory of Design, William Addis states:
Up until the turn of the century, it was standard practice for engineers to keep their own notebooks containing annotated sketches of hundreds of interesting designs and details they have seen in their travels; this formed a body of knowledge upon which a designer could draw and provided an important link to the past. Also, until the present century, engineering textbooks and encyclopedias often used to contain many examples of successful designs, both ancient and modern. Nowadays, young engineers are generally brought up without a good knowledge of precedent and to believe that mathematics of engineering science encapsulates all they need to know.
13: Simplify Your Analysis Models
The best structural engineers do not need complicated models. It is commonly said that computer software can be a valuable and reliable tool only to those who otherwise do not need it. This is true. In your work, make this true. Software writers who work on integrating BIM with analysis models do not seem to understand this. They mistakenly think that it is useful for engineers to model the entire building – every floor slope or offset, every little filler beam around slab openings, etc.They believe that this is how we do our work! I tried to help reduce this misunderstanding when writing BIM and the Structural Engineering Community in the December 2008 issue of STRUCTURE. Computers should be used as a tool to make design decisions, they should not make the decision. We can model base plates and foundations as shell elements, or we can do a three-second hand calculation or quick spreadsheet. This is not about trying to take shortcuts. This is about knowing what the software can and should provide, and what it cannot or should not. If you already know that the software cannot come close to mimicking reality, where do you draw the line? Is the concrete you are modeling genuinely Hookean (linear-elastic)? Do plane sections really remain plane? Is that foundation or base plate a true pin or a fixed point? Is the soil perfectly stable and uniform? Do our buildings never decay? Does our concrete not continue hardening over time? I am not suggesting that we do not need to know about the state of the art in analytical modeling, I am just pressing the point that they will never achieve reality. Often complex finite element modeling is unnecessary and does not contribute to good design decisions.
14: Get into the Details
Become super-technical, because actively understanding our codes and science is essential. It is also unlimited.We cannot possibly know all that is in the endless codes that we need to use. So, you can add them all as PDF files on your e-reader (Kindle, Nook, etc.) and read in bed. If you have trouble sleeping, there is nothing better! Also, you wake up with new knowledge. Memorization is less important, since engineering is not knowledge-based, it is knowhow-based (See What Is Engineering Exactly? in the February issue of STRUCTURE). Where to look for knowledge may be more important than the facts themselves.
15: Constantly Prod Yourself
We need to keep asking questions like, “Why did you choose this over that?” or “What factors led to the decision to do that?” Avoid getting lost in the codes, details, or loads prior to looking at the full picture. If you have trouble looking at the structure as a whole (or connection as a whole, or weld as a whole), then you are not effectively managing your time. You will have trouble seeing what you need to focus on. Determine which areas of the project need special attention and which do not.
16: Know Engineering and Architecture History
Knowing our history, our leaders, our heroes, and our world’s engineering and architecture is not something that needs an explanation. How is this not part of the curriculum? History helps us use our long tradition of building structures to push new boundaries in our workplaces. We can stand on the structures of the past and learn to improve future design. We need to try to work daily towards rejecting the status quo, but only after we fully understand why. History will help us.
17: Seek Honesty to Achieve Beauty
How do structural engineers design beautiful works of “structural art”? Pier Luigi Nervi states the importance of structural honesty or correctness:
Every improvement in the functionality and the technical efficiency of a product brings out an improvement in its aesthetic quality… truthfulness is an indispensable condition of good aesthetic results. This idea of working with honesty and clarity is similar to step 7 of this manifesto (Forget About Goals). Like the last phrase of the poem I wrote about Nervi (The Structure That Sings, in the March 2008 issue of STRUCTURE): Truth in form as the means, and beauty as the end can be our contribution towards improving the aesthetics of the built world.▪ Erik Anders Nelson, P.E., S.E. (ean@ structuresworkshop.com), is owner of Structures Workshop, Inc. in Providence, RI. He teaches one class per semester at the Rhode Island School of Design and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Please visit and comment on his blog at www.structuresworkshop.com/blog.
Structural Forum is intended to stimulate thoughtful dialogue and debate among structural engineers and other participants in the design and construction process. Any opinions expressed in Structural Forum are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of NCSEA, CASE, SEI, C 3 Ink, or the STRUCTURE® magazine Editorial Board.
