Does anyone know why wood is stronger with a shorter load? I imagine it has something to do with fibers breaking one by one under load, but I haven't found any references to explain the behavior.
Also, it seems that wood fatigues in deflection. That is, a bend will increase over time with a...
I was asked if a 6000 square foot, one story steel building could take the added weight of solar PV panels on the roof. I have the plans and am trying to decide if the current ICC code would be more relaxed for the seismic requirements than originally calculated. Can anyone shed light here? I...
Does anyone have a good reference or software package for designing a two way or one way slab. It's for a residential slab in the US on a pier and grade beam foundation in weak soil conditions.
Thanks--Peter
Does anyone have a good reference or software package for designing a two way or one way slab. It's for a residential slab on pier/grade beam with weak soil conditions.
Thanks--Peter
I would like to ask a general question about a development plan which my town, the City of Sebastopol, CA is formulating. It will allow development of 54 acres of an old industrial section of town. It envisions New Urbanism, with municipal buildings, commercial and four story residential...
Does anyone know where I can get a lab data sheet for Atterberg limits. I need the number of blows in log versus the water content. The other pertinent lab data on one page would be helpful too.
Thanks---P
I have to design a cave portal in Napa, CA where the soil is potentially plastic clay, CL, with moderate expansiveness. The contractor would like to cut the 8' wall face and then shotcrete without backfilling. That would leave the wall exposed to the clay as backfill. Is that what is commonly...
I have responsibility for a soils investigation and for designing the portal for a small wine cave in Napa, California. I haven't done one before and am looking for some information for design. Are there any good references for these? The soil is a CH clay-silt stone (moderately expansive)...
I am designing a raft foundation for a small house on silty-sandy soil subject to liquefaction in Northern California. The foundation grade beams will be 30" deep and I don't want to form them up. The soil holds up vertically pretty well but the 30" trenches may collapse while placing rebar...
This was discussed once on thread507-128311, but I'm not sure what to conclude about it. Enercalc gives the option of using the vertical component of active pressure for retaining wall stability calculations. Their structural engineer says there is some disagreement about using it in the...
A client in Ukiah, CA wants to put a 20' by 30' patio slab next to his house. The soil has cracks. It looks and feels like CH soil with some rock fragments. In some places the pad for the slab is a cut and in other places it is on 4 ft of fill. The owner is worried about the slab cracking...
I have a project where the owner built a 0.3 Acre pond on his hillside property without a permit and got busted for it 10 years later. There was a civil designer for the project but there was no inspection of the work. The building department wants an engineer to to verify the compaction of...
