Leaderboard

Salam Asif, There are constructability issues true, but its not on structural engineer issues only. Sometimes residential designs are not even designed or checked by structural engineers, client/architect or rep get drawings from a draftsman, get stamped from a tout and process for submission/construction. Client hires architect/contractor for full project, they hire someone with lowest bid, who doesn't care about design/economy/constructability. if its properly designed by structural engineer then it must not be so without requirement, all aspects shall be considered. Thank You

Hi friends, I hope you all are doing well. Recently I visited a site to check the reinforcement of a 2 story frame structure building. I found #8 dia bars being used in beams where i think #6 (with same Ast) could have been used. I met the steel fixer there and his comments can't be mentioned here. Dear folks, as a Structural Engineer our goal should be stability with economy but while designing we sometimes ignore the constructability aspect of the project specially in small scale local projects. As there is no skilled labor in remote areas so we should also consider the site conditions in our design and we should make our design more simple which can be easily executed.

Then this situation shall be communicated to the engineers for review of the design. Sometimes juniors work on designs and name of senior is written by default. thanks

Salam, For foundation design actual bearing capacity of soil shall be considered, lean concrete can improve immediate bearing under foundation but soil bearing shall not be improved, this is my understanding, other fellows and seniors shall share their opinion please.

For structural walls ACI 318-19 11.7.2.3 states that " For walls with thickness greater than 10 in., except single story basement walls and cantilever retaining walls, distributed reinforcement in each direction shall be placed in at least two layers, one near each face." However for non load bearing concrete walls you may design your concrete wall as plain concrete walls as per chapter 14 of ACI 318-19. However if subject wall is not being covered with any sort of sheeting then temperature and shrinkage reinforcement must be provided (equally distributed among both faces), otherwise hair line cracks may appear and can create unrest among users.

One needs to make structural response controlled in the way as IS relevant clause has indicated. As far as torsional amplification is concerned that is dealt separately by amplifying torsional eccentricity. Modal response is dealt separately by controlling modal response. Like there are situations in which you can have planner torsional irregularity yet torsional mode is coming after translational modes. But if it is not so then you need to balance the lateral stiffness in such a way that torsional mode does not become the first or second mode. This can be done in several ways. you can add additional shear walls in one of the either axis after studying response. One can alter the thickness of already placed shear walls differently in both principle axes. At times in dual systems one can improve the modal response by changing column dimensions. As structural engineers we need to strive for improving response of structure by using any combination of alterations in lateral force resisting system.

AA. Link of a catalogue, providing information about cross-sectional details & weights of different types of steel shapes available in Pakistan, is given below. It also contains list, thicknesses and weights of plain and corrugated steel sheets. Moreover, information about steel door chowkhats is also given therein. Shared for the benefit of all those interested. Regards. Link:- https://www.mwpbnp.com/downloads/Catalogue-mwpbnp.com.pdf