Hey folks, a customer came to me with concerns about the following situation. We've got two courses of block on top of a wall footing that are fully grouted and have started to form hairline cracks. I'm wondering if the grout is expanding and contracting, and maybe that's what's causing the...
Hey folks, I was called out to look at a new building where hairline cracks have appeared in the block over cold joints in the strip footing underneath. The customer says he'll be satisfied as long as it doesn't get any worse. I'm thinking of epoxying rebar into the existing footing and...
Hey folks. I just visited a block building in which both the front and rear walls are separating from the rest of the building, and appear to have been doing so for quite a long time. I've attached a bunch of photos. I haven't seen anything quite like it. My initial thought is to put an angle...
Hey folks, I've been asked to design a bridge structure that will carry some piping across a parking lot, a span of 70 feet. The client was thinking a suspension bridge might make the most sense, given the long span, but we're only talking about a load of 2.9 pounds per lineal foot, and the pipe...
Hello all. I've been asked to design a steel plate to support a 12'0" tall water tank with a 10'0" diameter. The framing has already been designed by others, but the tank manufacturer has said we need to put a plate under it. There is a 6x6 angle down the center of the frame (very rough sketch...
I was just called out to inspect some fresh spalling in a Spancrete panel at a car dealer/service shop. The photos show the bottom half of an 8" panel that has 2" of concrete poured overtop. We had a brief but intense rainstorm here yesterday, and it's not clear whether the spalling happened at...
I'm designing a pair of doghouses in an existing building to accommodate machines that are taller than the existing roof. They're close enough together that the snow drift loads (as they would be if not for the other doghouse) intersect. I've attached a rough sketch showing the drift loads only...
I've been asked for to give a preliminary size (for bidding purposes) of 12' tall poured walls for a manufacturing company. They're going to be storing heavy materials in each area of the building, and loading and unloading them with bulldozers. The attached sketch shows the anticipated weight...
I'm the staff engineer for a smallish contractor. A customer has come to us needing more head room over a machine they want to bring in. There are 30" bar joists in the area, and they were hoping to replace those with 6" beams if possible. My analysis shows they need at least a W8x15 (it's a 20'...
I'm fairly new to footing design, and I'm designing the column footings for a pre-engineered steel building. I have just finished calculating what would be needed for an interior column, using the procedure outlined in the "SE Structural Engineering Reference Manual" by Alan Williams. It takes...
I've been asked to evaluate whether a customer can hoist an empty 4,000-pound tank on a beam that is part of a pre-engineered metal building frame. This would be a one-time maneuver (well, a three-time maneuver, as they have three tanks) as they put the tanks in place, and would be done later...
I'm being asked to design a storm shelter. I don't know any of the parameters yet -- going to meet with the people tomorrow -- but I was wondering if anyone could recommend a reference material I could start with to familiarize myself with the design standards for something like this before I go...
I'm a pretty green engineer (got my PE in December) working for a small contractor. Our shop foreman came to me with the attached sketch. He wants to cut a 1.5-by-15-inch notch out of an existing W10x45 column, 23 inches above the bottom plate. I don't have any information handy about what the...
Please forgive me if this is a stupid question. I'm 99% sure I know the answer, but wanted to check.
I just became a PE last month, and am now serving as the staff engineer for a small contractor in Ohio. One of the first things I was asked to design was a foundation for a pit to hold a...
I have recently started using Sketchup Make, and have found it much simpler and easier to use than AutoCAD (granted, I haven't done much with AutoCAD). However, if I have to send something to an architect who's using AutoCAD, I'll need to save it in a format he or she can use. Does anyone have...
