The attached document is a study on the durability of TPO roofing.
Page 15 of the document describes how “hailstones larger than 3/4 inch in diameter were among those that impacted” one of the roof membranes (the one in Texas). This roof was sampled at some of the impact locations and examined...
Everyone,
I've been practicing as a forensic engineering expert witness largely related to residential buildings for about ten years. I was hoping to obtain some level of consensus on how you felt about the role of interviews (i.e., with owners, tenants, etc.) in the course of performing...
Everyone,
I am attempting to work my way through some relatively recent changes to the State of Tennessee statutes regarding the definition of "structural damage" (see page 2 of the attached document) for sinkhole investigations. As part of the definition, it refers the reader to "building...
I thought it would be interesting to know what other US structural engineering firms' charge out rates are. I've posted what they are for my firm below. Please post what they are for your firm, the state you're in and the roughly where you are within that state.
I realize that the size of a...
We have a client that is interested in building some potato storage facilities. My understanding is that the potatoes are piled in bulk on the concrete floor (apparently up to 19'-0" high in this case) against the exterior walls (also concrete) of the rectangular building. A tie from exterior...
Section 1630 of the '97 UBC and section 1617.2 of the 2003 IBC (section 9.5.2.4 of ASCE 7-02) define the reliability / redundancy factor rho.
Section C105.1.1.1 of the 1999 Recommended Lateral Force Requirements and Commentary (Seventeenth Edition; SEAOC), in discussing this factor, states the...
I am sitting for the CA structural exam in October and in need of some masonry design aids. Specifically, I am looking for tables of rho versus j / k.
I am aware that the "Reinforced Masonry Engineering Handbook" by Amrhein has tables such as these (I do not own this book). I am also aware of...
I am employed for a civil engineering firm that performed the engineering design for a small structure. We are working for an architect that did the architectural design of the structure.
We were just informed by the architect that the contractor has not obtained any permits on work performed...
I have an ethical dilemma that I am in need of assistance in resolving.
I work for the building design department at an engineering firm. We do mostly residential and commercial light-framed wood construction, with some steel, concrete and masonry design. I have about four years of experience...
It is my understanding that with a flexible (horizontal) wood diaphragm and wood framed shearwalls (assume we're using segmented shearwall design), forces are distributed to each shearwall in a wall line based on tributary area. My question is, what if each wall in the same wall line has a...
