Mechanical Eng needing to learn Civil/Structural basics 1

[jrausin]

I've been a mechanical engineer working on nuclear power plant design for the past few years. I have an opportunity to transpose myself as a civil/structural engineer for a year or so supporting real civil/structural engineers. The work is raceway and conduit supports in a nuclear power plant under construction. For sure, I'd have my hands in some GTSTRUDL, mmmm, sounds delicious, haha.

My exposure to this field is minimal (these engineers work with steel and concrete, right?), so I'm looking for a good book that could teach me the basics of civil/structural engineering, but not too basic seeing how I already have a degree in mech engineering.

Any ideas?

 

[dhengr]

That’s certainly not an impossible engineering transition, particularly if you will be working under some more experience Structural Engineers, maybe P.E’s. What you really need is some good engineering experience, ability and intuition as long as that experience is aligned with this new design you’ll be doing. Are you a P.E.? Do you have an M.E. degree, when did you graduate and what kind of experience have you had along these or similar design areas? What have you been designing along the M.E. lines in the plant, or have you just been shuffling paper for the regulator’s requirements? You will be expected to have a handle on a little more than just a computer program or two. You’ve probably already had courses in Engineering Mechanics (Statics, Dynamics, etc.), Strength of Materials, Machine Design, and the like, all important first courses in this same design area.

You’ll undoubtedly need more than one or two books. You’ll need some familiarity with steel and concrete design (text books) and the codes that go with them (their code books, AISC & ACI). The building codes and NRC codes come into play also. If they are offering you the opportunity, they must have some idea of your abilities and/or limitations. Be a willing learner, don’t B.S. them about what you can do, most good bosses are willing to help you learn, if you put in the time and effort. They have a vested interest in your learning and doing it right, the first time and every time, if for no other reason than to keep you both out of trouble.

 

[ToadJones]

Are you in the U.S.?

If so, I'm going to ignore your question and say:

Hip Hip Hooray! We are actually building a Nuke Plant!!!!!

 

[jrausin]

ToadJones:
I work for a US company, but the plant I will be working on is overseas We are currently doing detailed design for new US plants, and there is at least one I know of that is breaking ground here in the US right now, see Plant Vogtle in Georgia.

dhenr:
I will be working under experienced PEs. I am not a PE, I have been doing mechanical design work since I graduated 3 years ago. My design experience extends to piping, tanks, heat exchangers and pumps (calculations and specs). A lot of thermo, heat transfer and two-phase. Recently, I have been engulfed in regulatory and licensing requirements.

It looks like we will be doing some cookie cutter calcs using Excel and probably more detailed calcs later. Also, I will be learning GTSTRUDL. This seems to be very focused on conduit/raceway supports only.

Yes, I took those courses at the university and have already dusted off the old binders and notebooks.

Ok, the main reason for this post is to try to catch up on the basics before I take the plunge. I will be meeting with the real Civil/Structural engineers soon, and it sounds like I can really rely on them to provide me what I need textbook/code wise.

Do you think if I brush up on my engineering mechanics studies then I will prepare myself to become a sponge? Yes, the boss knows my background studies and also my engineering abilities, so no BS is necessary (of course BS just leads to more BS and ultimatately failure, good to avoid).

Thank you so much for your response.

 

[fegenbush]

I am doing something similar myself. Here are the books I recommend:

Steel:
AISC Steel Construction Manual 13th or 14th edition
AISC Seismic Design Manual - optional

Structural Steel Design - J. C. McCormac
Steel Structures: Design and Behavior - Salmon & Johnson

Concrete:
ACI 318-08 or later (the column behavior changed in the 08 edition)

Design of Reinforced Concrete - J. C. McCormac

As you can tell, I'm a big fan of McCormac. If you want to pick up the older versions of his books, they are pretty cheap on the used market, and you can get the principles easily. However, the code may have changed, so beware.

 

[jmcoope3]

I graduated as a Mechanical with a concentration in plastics manufacturing and thermal systems modeling... and have been working structural ever sense. Its not a bad transition, just a lot of super vague multipliers and big numbers.

Not having any real world mechanical experience i'm not sure if this statement holds water: for every hour of engineering you do you'll be doing 2 hours of drafting and 6 hours of covering yourself from getting sued.

 

[dhengr]

Jrausin:
I suspect a good share of that work is fairly cookbookish at first, fairly std. sections, materials specs., pre-approved details, etc. Then you pick the spacing, section size and connection detail as a function of the loads on the trays or racks. It sounds like you’ve been doing some things that require some serious engineering type thinking, and that’s really good. Otherwise, my comment was intended to mean, not just/only paper shuffling experience, although there is plenty of that on those jobs too. And, you got my drift on B.Sing. too, it never carries you far. By all means be a sponge, you can learn a lot by listening, asking thoughtful questions and studying on your own. I suspect you’ll like the structural take on engineering and want to stay at it for more than just a year or so.

There are a number of good texts out there, ask your uni. profs. in the Structural Dept. what they use to teach their courses in steel and concrete. Salmon and Johnson is particularly good in steel design. You should really have some of these ref. books of your own. See if you can find Schaum’s Outlines in Strength of Materials, Structural Steel Design and Structural Concrete Design, they’ll help you get your feet wet quickly, at a fairly basic level, but are no substitute for the text books or code books. By all means dust off your old texts and notes on the subjects I mentioned earlier.

Good Luck