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We are structural engineers working in a very small country with no geotechnical engineers. Web have a client who wants to build a warehouse on a site with a very bad ground conditions. We have a “fat clay” with a LL of over 100 and a PI of over 65. The thickness of this layer is about 6m...

Hi All, I looking at repairing an existing outdoor basketball court with a slab on grade. The court is several decades old and the surface has started to deteriorate. The school does not have the fund to rip out completely and redo. I'm proposing the following 1. Roughen surface using light...

Hi, I'm doing a design review for the stabilisation of a 30 foot cut face. The slope of the land beyond the face is fairly steep at 27-30 degrees. The topsoil layer is about 3 feet thick but the rest of the face appears to be cemented granular material of varying consistency. See attached...

Hi, I have a timber truss fabricator from Florida who has supplied us with some shop drawings for review. The trusses are for a hotel in a hurricane prone region outside the US which is why the developer has engaged a fabricator from Florida. The trusses are generally for building blocks that...

Hi All, We are a civil/structural engineering company that does mainly structural work. Our civil work generally has been limited to road alignments, storm drainage, retaining structures and earthworks. On several projects we have done, the services engineers also deal with site works that...

Hi, I'm reviewing a concrete beam in a building under construction which was loaded accidentally from a falling object. Some diagonal shear cracks have formed near the supports on both faces. There are no flexural cracks so I'm thinking that the bars have not yielded and are probably still ok...

Hi, I'm reviewing drawings prepared by another engineer and he has 6" wide beams with two 2 -3/4 inch bars top and bottom. Because the structure is close to the sea, the concrete cover is 1.5" which doesn't leave any space between the bars. I raised this with the design engineer and he...

Hi All, I'm analyzing a five storey hotel that has 16 foot cantilever balconies. Floor to floor height is 10 feet. The good thing is there are reinforced concrete party walls at 15'0 centers between each room which also extent out to almost the end of the balcony. The party walls extend 30 feet...

Hi, I'm working on a connection detail for a curtain wall. The window manufacturer wants to use 3/8" dia countersunk bolts (tapered head)in a 1/2" thick plate. The bolts will have about 1.2kip factored tension. Can someone point me to a reference for checking the pullout capacity? Thanks.

Dear All, I'm new to SAP2000 and I'm trying to model a slab supported by beams on three sides and a wall on one side. Is there a way to restrain the edge only on one side (the wall) automatically? When I run the model, the results show that the slab is bending more in the long direction which...

Hi All, Is there a recommended limit for rejecting plastic concrete based on temperature? I've heard many times that concrete begins to set at 90 degrees and obviously any placement which occurs above that temperature will affect the 28 day strength. The average air temperature during the day...

Hi All, I'm working on a project where we are casting a reinforced concrete frame against an existing building to reinforce it. The contractor is behind schedule and has proposed a somewhat odd methodology to speed up the programme. Currently all the reinforcement is hung on the building and...

Dear All, I am reviewing drawings for a project where bedrock for one section of the building is at ground surface level while other parts of the site, the bedrock level varies to a maximum of 40feet below the surface. The structure is a 120 foot span portal frame with an internal column which...

Hi All, I have to design a retaining wall which has a large part of the stem below ground. The reason being we found somewhat questionable and suggested excavating down to more suitable depth for bearing purposes. The height of the stem is 25 feet. however the soil over the toe is...

Dear All, I have a 10" r/c shear wall where the starter bars are cast in the wrong location by 4" over the entire length of the wall. The wall is in a basement and the architect will allow us to increase the wall thickness to 14" in the basement only. ACI 12.14.2.3 allows non contact lap...

Dear All, I have structure supported on a piled foundation. The pile caps are tied with grade beams and the primary structural grid is 13'-0". My grade beams are between 2-3' deep. I am currently trying to resolve the lateral loads due to a seismic and was wondering if I could use the passive...

Dear All, I'm conducting a structural assessment of an existing building. The roof structure consists of double 2x6 rafters at 2 foot centers. Once of the rafters is a full length while the other has a joint at different locations but on either side of the joint there are two bolts 6 inches...

Dear All, I have a pile supported building that has a single level basement. The top of the basement slab is 600mm below the water table. I've considered that the basement slab and ground beams are integral with the pile caps to minimize the depth of excavation. The pile cap is 1000mm deep and...

Dear All, I've searched the forum but have not been able to get an appropriate answer. I'm designing a swimming pool which has an acrylic window. The top of the acrylic will also serve as an infinity edge so the window is not framed at the top. The window is 25 feet long and 3 feet high and...

Hi All, I am trying to calculate the tensile capacity of a pipe pile foundation. The piles are ductile iron pipes in 5m lengths and only have a friction, bell and spigot joint. To get tensile capacity, I have been advised that the pile needs to be fully grouted and a continuous rebar...