Structural Specialties and Niches 1

[Simba13]

Afternoon all,

Everyone says that structural engineering is generally broken up into two categories: buildings and bridges, but I'm curious about the smaller specialties within structural engineering that some of you have found yourselves in. Blast and coastal come to mind for me but I know that there are some even more specific ones out there.

 

[WARose]

Vibration control/design is mine.

 

[jayrod12]

Glazing design is structural voodoo to a lot of people. Especially once you are going for the more out-of-the-box type designs.

I would also argue that being a specialist in wood design is a real thing. Individual member design itself is easy, and that's why many engineers will take the jobs. But, paying attention to connections and the details takes a keen eye and a lot of experience to be proficient. Some framing experience goes a long way to detailing constructible designs.

 

[cliff234]

Structural steel connection design
Post-tensioned concrete design
Construction engineering
Wood-framed building design
Cold formed steel design

 

[JoshPlumSE]

I have different friends that specialize in very specialty sub-fields of structural engineering:
Heavy Industrial (Oil, Petrochem, Gas, Power, Nuclear)
Healthcare facilities (Hospitals, Dialysis Centers, Nursing homes, imaging centers, etc)
Swimming Pools and ancillary structures

The way I see it, is that each of brings efficiencies to their clients by specializing in the particular field. Other engineers are certainly capable of doing the same work, but it would take them longer or it would be more expensive.

 

[JoshPlumSE]

Oh, and I know someone else who specializes in steel connection design (and detailing).

 

[dik]

I live for these types of projects...

Rather than think climate change and the corona virus as science, think of it as the wrath of God. Feel any better?
-Dik

 

[Simba13]

I guess I should have put this in the original post, but how did you all end up in your respective fields? Like for example jayrod12 did you graduate college and say "I'm going to be a glazing design specialist" ? It's seems very interesting but as a student I feel like we weren't really made aware of different options and niches for us to know about something like that.

WARose When I think back I wish I had taken the next level of structural dynamics, it was interesting stuff.

 

[TheDW]

Cell tower analysis/retrofit is a pretty sizable niche...every time verizon or whoever want to adjust/add antennas (which is all the time), somebody has to analyze the tower and foundation first.

 

[jayrod12]

Actually for me, I would say I'm a wood guy. We have some glazing people here in the office.

For me, I've always been interested in framing and constructing things thanks to my dad asking (read:forcing) me to help with home renovations when I was young. Hated it at the time, but really appreciate it now. Once I got into the field I happened to have my first job at a small firm that specialized in residential and light commercial stuff. Essentially 90% wood design with some steel and concrete mixed in. As my experience in that area continued I became more proficient and enjoyed those designs more so than concrete or steel.

Now that I'm at a medium sized firm, I'm the wood guy everyone goes to with questions. I enjoy it. I'm (self-proclaimed) good at it. Specifically the detailing that I talked about. More often than not my comments to other designers has more to do with constructability/detailing than load transfers and member sizing.

The glazing people at our office that I would consider our gurus all started out doing standard design type stuff, commercial stuff mostly. Then were given a couple curtain wall design jobs, realized they were quite proficient at it, almost like they had a knack for it, and just became a guru after doing a bunch of it. I don't think they were dreaming in school they'd be designing with glass all the time. But sometimes you just take what life gives you and run with it.

 

[dhengr]

Simba13:
Many, many things which we build and manufacture for general use need some Structural Engineering, stress analysis, manufacturing engineering study for them to be practically built and safely utilized. What keeps airplanes together in flight if not Structural Engineering? What about the strength and durability of Caterpillar’s entire line of equipment? What about cranes, cars, ships, containers, railcars and rail equipment, etc. etc.? If you think only bridges and building, that is certainly pretty narrow minded. After you’ve designed a few thousand simple, fixed or canti. beams, in whatever material, there just isn’t much difference btwn. a 16’ or 20’ beam with a slightly different loading. We aren’t (many of us) thinking engineers any longer, really understanding our domain and its various elements, and how they really work and interact, the computer tells us what the answer should be, and many of us don’t question that, or look for a better, more economical, more practical solution. We just go along and collect our pay check. Many products for the general public and for general consumption tend to be conceived and then tested until they don’t fail any longer, rather than to have any significant stress analysis and manufacturing engineering employed in their development.

For the first 10 years of my career I did just a little bridge work, early on, and a whole bunch of buildings. 22 stories max. height, half a dozen in that range; acres and acres of warehousing; churches, schools, armories, manuf. bldgs. public bldgs. thousands of units of low-rise housing, single family homes, etc. etc. That was back at a time when the bldg. codes (the whole bldg. system, AHJ’s, etc.) actually allowed you to be a real Structural Engineer applying your knowledge, experience and judgement to create a structural design, instead of a cookbook follower and applier. This was also a time when you could be reasonably proficient in designing in any of the bldg. materials, and we did. Now, my contact with bldgs. is primarily on a forensic basis, when things have started to go wrong, for lack of attention to detail. Now, who’s at fault, and how to fix it, and who pays for it, is the issue. Then, a mentor asked me for some help on an unusual structural design project/problem; do a stress analysis on this thing, member sizing, deflections, buckling potential, welding, assembly and manufacturing, etc. I liked this more theoretical approach to engineering, Theory of Elasticity and Structures, etc., my grad. school background, and I was hooked on the no-code, unusual product design kinda engineering, the trouble shooting when things go wrong on a product, etc. I have always kept in close contact with AISC, ACI, NDS, ASTM, etc. for their wealth of knowledge and experience in their areas, as this might influence my work, I’ve always done a fair amount of tech, journal reading, etc., but I sure have done a bunch of stuff which I really had no specific bldg. code paragraph to point to, on that particular detail or condition. Because of my background and experience and continued learning, I’ve always felt comfortable about working within my area of expertise, and have felt that I would be able to defend my work. Given the rabid competition from inexperienced, cut-throat, engineers on the run-of-the-mill engineering these days, it may be wise to find a more narrow nitch in which to practice.

 

[JoshPlumSE]

I specialize in Structural Software. Graduated in 1996 and went to work for a large Engineering firm. I quickly became the "software expert" on certain computer programs. And, I began communicating with the various software companies as something of a liaison between my company and theirs. Then I got a job in technical support with one of those companies and the rest is history.

My friend (who specializes in healthcare) started at the same large engineering firm as I did. But, he left a few years earlier. Probably because the engineering wasn't challenging enough for him. He started doing some healthcare work. Then decided to venture out on his own. This was something like 2007. At that point, the health care sector was the only sector that was doing much work. So, he really pushed it. Developed the right client relationships and the rest is history.

 

[JoshPlumSE]

The guy who specialized in pools is an interesting story. The founder started out as a civil engineer with an emphasis in structures. Then he went into construction and his company did a lot of swimming pool work for years. Then, when he got back into engineering, he realized that he knew so much more about the pool industry than any other engineer. He knew lots of other pool contractors and started doing the engineering for them.... Soon, there weren't any other engineers that could compete with him on prices or schedule. Then he hired my friend.

 

[WARose]

I guess I should have put this in the original post, but how did you all end up in your respective fields?

................

WARose When I think back I wish I had taken the next level of structural dynamics, it was interesting stuff.

Funny you should ask and have that statement in the same post.

When I was right out of college (at that point with just a undergrad degree), they got me helping a guy who did a lot of dynamic loading problems. Needless to say, I wasn't helping him very much with that stuff. But over time we became friends and I talked a lot to him on this subject. I began helping him with problems like that. Over time, when I worked at other places.....I found that stuff on my plate more and more.

At that point, I decided to go back to college (while working) to take (among other things) a grad level course in Structural Dynamics. Next thing you know, I've got a MS.....and I am doing a lot of those issues. Today, I am a self-employed LLC owner that specializes in (among other things)....vibration problems.

So that's how I got to here. I wouldn't call what I did a true mentorship....there is just too much turnover these days for that. (And that was true in my career.) But it definitely piqued my interest.

 

[JedClampett]

I'm in water and wastewater (a niche). I run into specialists within that, such as;
[li]FRP tanks[/li]
[li]FRP shapes (different people)[/li]
[li]Steel tanks[/li]
[li]Prestressed concrete tanks[/li]
[li]Prestressed concrete[/li]
[li]Repair and Rehabilitation[/li]
[li]Equipment supports (this is likely to get bigger and bigger due to code)[/li]
[li]Pre-Engineered Metal Buildings[/li]
I'm sure there's much more. There's specialists in Florida (maybe not just in Florida) who do HVHZ testing and calculations.
I get resumes from college grads on occasion. And we do hire some. They all want to do high rises or bridges. There's a world out there that is not high rises or bridges. You're more likely to make better money if you're good at a specialty, rather than be treated like a commodity at (or by) an architectural firm.

 

[STrctPono]

One thing that never ceases to amaze me is how much of our civilized world has required some structural engineering design to one extent or another (and the majority of the public has no idea). Because of this, every engineering firm has a vastly different portfolio. This remained (at least for me) entirely illusive coming out of grad school. It wasn't until I had been working for a few years that I realized how lucky I was to have landed a job with the company that I did. I felt bad for some of my graduating colleagues as they struggled in their new career as the roles could have just as easily been reversed. Most graduating Engineers only know that they want to work on something grand and meaningful but have little insight into the specific type of work they want to do. And quite frankly many graduating Engineers do not have the negotiating power to be that selective when interviewing with companies. Most Engineering schools in the US focus entirely on building design, so much so that students think that high rise buildings are all that SE's do. There is a world of other structural specialties out there. In my experience, the less glamorous jobs bring in higher profits to the company than the highfalutin ones do.

I do almost entirely bridge design but occasionally will design a pier or wharf and every once in awhile will design a friend or colleague's house. When I sat for the SE exam, I was the only tester out of 20 that took the bridges portion. By working in transportation infrastructure projects you get exposed to designing every single type of earth retention wall/structure imaginable, concrete culverts, crash barriers, ramps, overhead highway sign structures, traffic signal structures (by others), CIP and Precast PCC pavement design, manholes and catch basins, below ground cofferdam/shoring design, above ground shoring design...

A few other specialties not previously mentioned:

Piers and Wharves
Floating drydock design
Offshore Oil Platform Design
Dams and Spillways
Mining/Tunneling
PV panel fixed or tracking support design
Traffic Signal structure design
Highway Luminaire structure design

 

[Mohanlal0488]

My specialization is in:

[ul]
[li]structures subjected to dynamic loading from crushers and screening equipment. By extension of this I have had to also specialize in Finite element analysis as many of the connections especially for the crushing equipment cannot be designed by hand and require complex transient analysis using contact, material and geometric non-linearity. Due the the requirement to develop full solutions this also includes conveyor design, surge bins and slurry tanks
[li]Cyclone cluster structures which is mainly plate work and used in the minerals processing field[/li]
[li]Dewatering pontoons which cover the structural and naval architecture aspects[/li]
[li]Due to the fact that I work for an equipment manufacturer I have also worked on structural aspects of various equipment and their
dynamic analysis from a loading perspective which has made me to go to guy in a few areas of equipment design[/li]
[/ul]
[/li]

 

[IDS]

Soil-structure interaction, which can be further subdivided into:

Retaining walls
Foundations
Tunnels
Buried structures

And all of the above can be further sub-divided.

Doug Jenkins
Interactive Design Services

http://newtonexcelbach.wordpress.com/

 

[Ron]

Forensic...a specialty of generalization!

 

[UcfSE]

Structural dynamics, fatigue design, analysis of moving equipment.