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Australia Structural Calcs

Australia Structural Calcs

Australia Structural Calcs

(OP)
I am just wondering if anyone can help me. I have just moved to Australia from UK. I am thinking of going solo due to time constraint. Can anybody please send me some sample of structural calculations for Australian Building regs or are there any resources that I can access on line. many thanks in advance.

RE: Australia Structural Calcs

Hope you're not in Queensland, probably best to put this in the Engineer Business Practices and Issues, because I would be willing to bet that it will be deleted from here.

Are you Istrute? What areas are you looking to practice?

We design to the Australian codes, basically the best bits picked from other codes around the world.

Arguing with an engineer is like wrestling with a pig in mud. After a while you realize that they like it

RE: Australia Structural Calcs

fecope,

I have worked extensively in both countries.

If you use the level of calculations that you would use in the UK then this would be more than adequate for building regs.

Which state are you practicing in? Have you checked out registration requirements in that state?

 

RE: Australia Structural Calcs

(OP)
thanks. I'm in SA.

Maybe I should re post this in the Engineer Business Practices and Issues. Thanks for your advice.

RE: Australia Structural Calcs

fecope:

Whatever your time constrains,  maybe you should consider working under a registered engineer long enough so that you don't have reason to ask that kind of question.  Solo, should mean analysis and design knowledge and experience and it does mean the potential of liability and building failures.  It sounds like you have a lack of the former and are heading for the latter.
 

RE: Australia Structural Calcs

Of course, you realize (being new to OZ and such) that all of the Australian structural loads are negative (since this is on the other side of the equator) and so you have to reverse the direction of loading on all the buildings unless you erect them from the top down.     

But the cranes run backwards anyway because all the AC current down there is actually cosine waves shifted 1/2 a frequency forward to compensate.    8<)

RE: Australia Structural Calcs

Doesn't UK shars some of the same traits? :)

RE: Australia Structural Calcs

Very unusual question!  Maybe you would care to elaborate on your original post.   

BA

RE: Australia Structural Calcs

fecope,

I am not sure about SA registration requirements as I have only dealt with Queensland, NSW, Victoria and NT. Most of these states have registration requirements so I would not expect that SA would be any different.

I would suggest you contact engineers Australia to get some information on the requirements.

http://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/

Practice in Australia is very different to that in the UK and I would also expect you would have a very hard time going solo without local knowledge and contacts.

RE: Australia Structural Calcs

BAretaired:

I assume you were talking about my response.
It was a return of favor aimed at racookpe1978 for the nuclear bomb he dropped :)

RE: Australia Structural Calcs

cntw1953,

Actually I was referring to the original post in which the OP asks for sample structural calculations.  It would be difficult to cover the subject thoroughly in a single response.

BA

RE: Australia Structural Calcs

Agreed.
Looks to me he needs to review local codes, work into it and seeking specific help along the journey. It is difficult to make comprehensive comparison by one shot.  

RE: Australia Structural Calcs

(OP)
BA, cntw,

Actually, I am only after for the general format and code of practice references. Hence one or two simple and typical calcs will suffice.

RE: Australia Structural Calcs

General format is quite similar worldwide, otherwise rocookPE1978's comments should be taken seriously :)
As someone has pointed out, the level of efforts shouldn't be much different from UK to Australia, but specific codes and general practices on certain type of construction could be another story. For that you have to work into the flow. Good luck.  

RE: Australia Structural Calcs

cntw1953,

These forums are not the place for supposition. Either you know from experience and therefore have a valid comment, or you don't.

I have worked in Australia, the UK, and the US and all three countries have very significant differences in practice.

fecopes' request is a valid one and one that I would probably ask myself if I were in similar circumstances.

RE: Australia Structural Calcs

csd72:

Please advise specifically the invalid comments. While I don't get your latest post, I tend to agree to your first one, isn't that valid?

RE: Australia Structural Calcs

cntw1953,

My words were:
'Either you know from experience and therefore have a valid comment, or you don't.'

I never said which category your comments fell into but apparently you are trying to do that for me smile

No I was referring to your comment
".....the level of efforts shouldn't be much different from UK to Australia,..." which implies that this is based on your opinion without any backup from specific knowledge or experience - e.g. supposition.

Please correct me if I am wrong.

 

RE: Australia Structural Calcs

csd72:

You have impressed me by picking my "opinion" out of all these responses. Looks like I have ran into an exclusive membership-only club in the open/worldwide forum. I appologize for that.

 

RE: Australia Structural Calcs

I guess I should shut up since I have never practiced in Australia, but I honestly do not understand the original question.  

If I had just moved to a new location and hoped eventually to start my own practice, I think I would get a job with an established company and get familiar with the local building codes and practices.  After a reasonable length of time, I would consider my options, one of which might be to work my way up in that firm.  Another might be to start my own practice.

An engineer without local knowledge is, in my opinion, not ready to start his own consulting business.

 

BA

RE: Australia Structural Calcs

cntw1953,

It is not an exclusive club, all posters should be prepared to defend their opinion, something that I have been called on to do a number of times.

BAretired,

I agree with you on this, something that is hard to explain to people that have not moved countries is how different some things can be.

Residential Foundations is a real classic example of how things change between countries as it is largely based on regional construction practice. Many residential foundation types came about because they just happened to work with the prevailing soil in the area.





 

RE: Australia Structural Calcs

csd72:

You should be more clear on your request of qualification, its not that difficult, I mainly station in the US, but work on projects in 3 continents, America, ASIA & Africa (I qualified for triple-A membership :). Hope it counts toward my qulification.

RE: Australia Structural Calcs

Difficult to shut-up when you think you know something :)

When deal with foreign projects, on top of review local regulations and codes, we will request the owner/sponsor/our coordinator to help in gathering pre-exist design materials (cal/specs/dwgs)/reports relevant to the projects. Most often, the collect documents will shorten our learning curve, or lead to further questions which might otherwise ignored due to unfamiliarity with local conditions/practices.

When apply for new job with unfamiliarity with their's practice, I usually ask the future employer to bring in some of their's simple design/standard sheets for general discussion. In return, I will bring in my sample cal/design to demonstrate the way I worked. Once hired, I will borrow some old cal and be acquaint with them ASAP.

Wish the above helps a little.

RE: Australia Structural Calcs

This is going nowhere.  BA has given good advice.  I practiced first in the US, then in Australia.  Starting on my own in Australia would have been impossible, I think.  The form of calculations would be the least important consideration in this decision.

RE: Australia Structural Calcs

What are the most difficulties/challenges there, in terms of general practices?

RE: Australia Structural Calcs

The difference is in the general accepted building practice.

The huge difference in what the buildings are designed for ie loads (earthquake, wind), but more importantly environmental effects. These are involved in every building design, but if you know the area they don't really show up in the cals all that much, more in the selection of building (ie 150 thick panels are the minimum size wall panels in the NT because they will sweat otherwise) and specification. But you need to know the area and how different material reacts, or you could spend a lot of time chasing your tail, or even worse having a building that doesn't meet client requirements, even though it meets the code requirements.  

Arguing with an engineer is like wrestling with a pig in mud. After a while you realize that they like it

RE: Australia Structural Calcs

Thanks. Good to know. It (local practices) is a barrier for people move from region to region even sometimes in their's own country. Takes time to work into it.

RE: Australia Structural Calcs

Remember too, that Aussies do the calcs upside down.  And only after 5 with a beer.  bigsmile

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
Motto:  KISS
Motivation:  Don't ask

RE: Australia Structural Calcs

Redundancy is often an important consideration - have 2 beers in case you lose the first one!

All jokes aside, as some people have inferred it is the underlying assumptions that do not appear on the calcs that are the important ones.

A few specific differences from oz to the UK:

- precast concrete (including tilt up) is a lot more prevalent and therefore the codes are more advanced. Each state has stringent health and safety rules for the erection of these structures that need to be considered in design.
- No CDM as such.
- Steel connection designs in Australia are always done by the consulting engineer never by the fabricator.
- There is an earthquake code that always needs to be considered.
- snow and frost are almost never an issue.
- wind can be more extreme.
- Australian codes are not as extensive as UK or US codes so more things are up the the judgement of the individual engineer.
- Concrete beams are sized on deflection calculations not s/d ratios.
- Timber code is very different to the UK one including both long and short term deflection as well as termite resistance factors.
- Residential slabs and footing in australia have their own code which is often based on control of differential deflection rather than bearing capacity (too hard to explain here).

I could keep going on...

RE: Australia Structural Calcs

csd72

A cou-ple of important ones you missed

- concrete flat plates are not economical and are used much less frequently than in UK

- a large portion of concrete buildings are post-tensioned. Long spans in Australia mean post-tensioned conctruction, not structural steel as you would normally do in UK.

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