Recent content by umgrego2

Thanks for the input. I guess the distinction needs to be made between drawings and calculations. Auce98 stated that drawings were kept for 7 years and calculations kept until end of CA phase. Ron: when you say 3 years, are you referring to drawings or calculations? Rich: I think I need some...

How long do you need to keep your calculations in storage? Is there a point after a certain number of years that you can start pitching stuff in the garbage? Our administration is looking at reducing the cost of storing drawings and engineering calculations. Is seven years reasonable? 20...

That sounds a little different than our code. It states that top steel is: "so placed that more than 300mm of fresh concrete is cast in the member below the development length or splice." So in a wall, the horizontal rebar could be 12" above the footing (with say 7 ft of...

In the Canadian concrete code, there is a modification factor for the development length that is dependent on whether or not the rebar is "top" tension steel or "bottom" tension steel. I understand how to differentiate between the two, but what is the reason for this...

Check out this website: http://www.matweb.com/search/SpecificMaterial.asp?bassnum=Q310A It has a great searchable database for material properties. Cheers, Mike

If I understand your question, I believe you've already answered it yourself. A notch in a beam is a concern only on the tension side. The reason being, of course, that you could end up with the log splitting along the grain at the corner of the notch. As long as the beam does not cantilever...

Thanks to everyone for your thoughtful replies. Just to let you know what my other research has provided: The CISC responded with: "From an erection consideration perspective, 2 bolts are the minimum required for installation purposes. Within the industry, there has always been a...

There has been a lot of discussion at our office over the use of single bolt connections in steel frames that we design. The two more experienced people feel quite strongly that you should not design a bolted connection that uses only one bolt. One claims that it is an erection safety issue. The...

One of the more experienced engineers at our firm has made the comment that you shouldn't use 10M bar as the principal reinforcement in concrete. He maintains that 10M should only be used as ties and stirrups. The problem is, that it doesn't say this in the concrete code. Has anyone heard this...

We use RISA 3-D and Ansys at our office. Risa is a low-cost yet effective FEM program that we use primarily for modelling steel and wood frames. It has a plate option that can be used for concrete, but it is limited so we try and use Ansys as much as possible for concrete. Risa is easy to use...

I agree with ajuk and bigh. Where I live, we have a high clay content in the soil. It has become common knowledge, even amongst non-engineers, that you avoid at all costs cutting down a tree that close to the foundation. Property value will also go down considerably if there are few trees on...

All I can say is 'chin up'. I know how you feel having just graduated a year and a half ago. I live in Winnipeg Canada, which although not the same continent as you, is relevant in the fact that Winnipeg is considered by most a dying city. I had convinced myself that I wouldn't find any...

I think we're losing sight of the big picture. The 4d requirement that is being referred to is the loaded edge distance. So this value would only be of concern on the windward sill plate. But the large majority of the wind load gets transferred to the shear walls, either directly or through the...

Thanks Ishavaaag, I've re-run the model with a 0.05 ft offset for the middle of my member. Now when I run it with the thermal load, I get a deflection of over 1 inch. Your help was invaluable. I'll definitely have to learn how to use a stronger finite element program soon. Cheers, Mike

Thank you both for your reply! I agree about the expansion joint. It was my intuition from the start. But it's one of those "we've always done it that way" things. I'm still curious as to whether or not steel would buckle. I'm exceeding the yield stress in the model, but not getting...