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  1. ampersand

    LFRS - Hawaii

    This question is directed at any structural engineers, designing homes in Hawaii. (I'm a structural engineer in California) In the coast towns, there are so many homes raised up on piers, either completely, or almost completely devoid of shear walls. These are probably just older homes, built...
  2. ampersand

    Are Special Inspections Actually Required? (Residential)

    I ask this question only half joking. Quite frankly, I am sick of filling out Special Inspection (SI) forms, only to have builders ignore them, or building inspectors try to rewrite them, and so on. I am also sick of having to charge clients many hundreds of dollars to watch someone squirt...
  3. ampersand

    PT Slab Discovered During Construction!

    Hello All, I am a licensed CA structural engineer, and I recently designed a rear addition to a residence in the SF Bay Area. The owner did not provide a geotechnical report. I visited the site, took measurements and photos, and I designed the foundation as a conventional foundation system...
  4. ampersand

    Moment Frames permitted in Single Family Homes

    The Subject sounds like a dumb question. I have designed ordinary moment frames in countless single family homes over the years. But today I found myself carefully reading section 12.3.1.1 of ASCE 7-05 (it's the only copy I own. It states that a plywood diaphragm my be idealized as flexible...
  5. ampersand

    Post-Tensioned building demolition

    I am beginning to prepare a structural demolition plan and shoring plan for a multi-story post-tensioned structure. I have assessed the equipment the contractor will be operating on the decks, and I have designed the shoring required under the working surface before demolition of a floor may...
  6. ampersand

    drift limits- apply to nonstructural component supporting moment frame?

    Hello, all. I am engineering a steel tube entry frame inside of an existing building. Anchors to an existing raised slab, which needs to be checked (separate issue). Consists of two moment frames, set about 5 feet apart, each 10 feet tall and 30 feet wide. The whole thing will be wrapped in...
  7. ampersand

    Appendix D anchorage loads - clarified

    Every engineer I know has struggled with determining the design loads for high-seismic anchors, specifically, applying multiple load-increase and strength-reduction factors until the anchorage is ridiculously overdesigned. Plan checkers often don't understand the larger design process, and will...
  8. ampersand

    Story Drift Per ASCE Table 12.12-1

    I find myself in disagreement with a plan checker- go figure. ASCE Table 12.12-1, first row, specifies allowable story drift for buildings with "interior walls, partitions, ceilings, and exterior wall systems that have been designed to accommodate the story drifts." The last row pertains to...
  9. ampersand

    ISO column cap with uplift, splice condition

    In designing a beam/column connection at a covered walkway, I end up with a net uplift on my 6x12 beam. The walkway is long, so they is no possibility of using a continuous beam the entire length- there will be a splice condition with two 6x12's abutting over a column. Naturally, I want to...
  10. ampersand

    structural engineer salary survey

    I was a self-employed structural engineer for five years, and after the business failed, I have finally received an offer from a company. I have ten years of structural engineering experience (residential and educational), a PE license, and a BSCE from a top university. I've been offered $27...
  11. ampersand

    Steel SMf vs. OMF

    I am considering purchasing RISA-Connection so that I can begin designing special steel moment frames easily, instead of the ordinary frames I have designed in the past, usually when retrofitting a wood-framed building. Looking at 'dogbone' (RBS) type connections, the following question came to...
  12. ampersand

    Ordinary Moment Frame analysis - what loads to apply?

    I am designing a wood-frame two-story residence, and I need to design an OMF for shear along one exterior wall. When analyzing the frame and sizing the columns and beam, do I use the 'regular' load combinations- with E/1.4 as the seismic force? Or, because this is an ordinary moment frame, do...
  13. ampersand

    how much skin friction to assume...

    I am preparing the structural framing and foundation design for a flat-roofed carport in Occidental, CA, forty miles north of San Francisco. The owner/builder wants to use drilled concrete piers of not more than 24" diameter, and he is not interested in shallow footings. The bearing loads on...
  14. ampersand

    maximum building height for type V construction

    I have contracted to design a six-story apartment building, in California. This is larger than any of my previous jobs (custom homes). I am trying to determine what materials/structural systems I am permitted to use, but surprise, I can't figure out the 2006 IBC... The building is a...
  15. ampersand

    High seismic mudsills... must be 5.5" in width?

    I'm in California, and we just switched over to the IBC. One new requirement is that shearwall sill plate anchor bolts now have to have 3"x3"x0.229" plate washers. Now, suppose you have a shearwall built on a framed floor, and the floor framing bears on a mudsill, which sits on the foundation...
  16. ampersand

    2006 IBC OMF analysis procedure

    I am flummoxed. I'm in California; we just switched from UBC to IBC. I cannot, for the life of me, nail down just how to design an OMF. I frequently design one-story steel OMFs supporting wood-frame structures (homes, small apartments), but the new code has me confused. I don't want to...
  17. ampersand

    shear reinforcing at construction joint

    I find myself designing a 15'-0" tall, 14" wide concrete retaining wall, which will sit directly on 24" diameter piers, spaced at about 8'-0" o.c. There is an 8000# lateral load, per foot of retaining wall, that I must transfer into the piers. Naturally, the contractor will pour the piers and...
  18. ampersand

    shear strength at construction joints

    So here's a (hopefully) simple question... Contractors always want to pour concrete retaining walls in two pours, with a construction joint at the bottom of the wall/top of the footing. If we call for a "construction joint" on our details, are we jutified in assuming that the full shear...
  19. ampersand

    notched stair stringer question...

    Suppose you are calcing some exterior wood stairs, built the traditional way- (2) 2x12 stringers, notched, resulting in a remaining depth of 5-1/2". I've never been sure what adjustment factors to use, and NDS literature seems to indicate that we are not allowed to notch a bending member more...

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