Waqar Saleem

Hi, You can add two columns at ends of window where circles are marked and add beams, one beam could be cantilever and other can rest on it or both beams could be cantilever.

Hi, if RC column you go use maximum reinforcement or can use composite section with W section steel member.

Yes Hamza, Discussion on forums is more productive and could be retrieved later for review or further improvement, Watsapp groups are also good but not that beneficial.

Dear Imran sb, Thank You, very much, we are on it. Slab is octagonal and pouring is done 4 portions first and then a gap and 4 are poured, temp is monitored by embedded sensor and readings are okay, a canopy is set above the slab and heaters are placed to maintain the temperature difference normal, scanning results are received, 50 readings, top/bottom 25/25, 50 percent are crossing into the core area or below the top bar, mostly are top side cracks, crack depths are max 20cm, cover to top rebar is 8cm. one thing i observed that mix design recommends 3 days strength 60/90 but in actual testing it is 87/90 in 3 days, rate of hydration is more then recommended or observed during trial mixes, please some data/example to calculate crack widths. Thank You

Salam, Thank you Badar, thickness is 1000mm and it has 4 layers of Dia 32 rebars in both directions, and a smaller size mesh at the top also of Dia 16, my perception is also of temp/shrinkage cracks, I collected the data, first crack appeared one week after pouring of concrete, cracks continue to appear and randomly, scanned and depth is 18cm at top and 10com at the bottom, at top cover is 8 cm, i dont understand why this much cover is provided.

Salam Zohair, it ok to have water tank there, just check any column loads which are around the periphery of tank and design walls of the tank for shear, take care to make its foundation joints and other top slab level joints are sealed, any leakage could create serious problems.

Thank You Dik, Slab has cracks, its 1000mm thick, and in octagonal shape, please see the document attached, its an initial draft. Mix design is also attached. @Badar (BAZ) @UmarMakhzumi Kindly have a look. Initital report for foundation cracks.pdf Mix design C-90 105.pdf

Dear Colleagues, Salam, i have a high strength concrete on a project specified C90/105, it is around 13ksi, concrete has some irregular cracks on top and bottom both sides, concrete depth is 1m and it has 4 layers of reinforcement D32@150 both sides. I checked the design mix trial tests, it is achieving 87.5Mpa in just three days, is it right? mix design has 1.5 air entrainment, what is the purpose of this? normally we compact and reduce voids, concrete is also self compacting, is it possible for a SCC to entrain some air? Thank You

Thank You

Small housing industry is all time necessity , small dwellings are required to start a family unit, but its very unfortunate that houses are going costly day by day.Private societies have been substitute for housing needs but now they are main cause of making them costly, developers/builders/propertieay are selling poorly developed lands on premium costs. A small plot is selling at 80 lac (8M), then in societies due to poor, non-engineered fills, there is huge cost of foundation stabilization, around 3M to 4M, after heavy foundation expenses there are chances that foundation might settle or deform, in some cases fills are more than 40ft, and consolidation takes too much time, water ingress is another issue. Foundation engineers need to come forward and tackle this problem, this is a practical problem and could benefit a lot of people, universities can develop a collaboration and can come up with some good solution in few years. Till now this problem is tackled by structural engineers (talking of my area, other areas might have better solutions already), and they are adding structural piles underneath foundations, piled raft, but problem is on geotechnical side so its geotechnical solution is required that should be affordable, structural solution is not affordable. Structurally lighter materials can assist to decrease stress on subsoils. On fills lights weight concrete or LGS or SCIP or modular houses shall be constructed. But for this people shall develop taste for new materials and alternatives.A family constructs house from their hard earn money, this should not be that difficult and costly. Future development should be improved, though there are no chances, developers/propertieay just need money, they leave ethics aside.People themselves shall ask for soil condition before buying plots, its not wise to buy a sick horse and then spend money on its health, i have observed propertieay (this is my term for property dealer) who jump on the filled areas and say see how hard is the land. Ethics? they dont bother. No Govt., society or anyone shall come to our help we shall stand for ourselves.Thank You

Engineers are not meant for doing jobs only, engineers are meant for creating jobs. Universities and institutes are producing people with intention of mere earning and not a passion of profession. Bachelor of engineering is a professional degree but after bachelors most engineers are going for MSc, in most of cases just to get more knowledge, but after a degree engineer shall be working on something practical to develop himself, engineering is not a theory only, most of the time its practical job with real cost and for real people.Engineering education shall be more towards practice and practical experience, engineering teachers must have minimum 8 years practical working experience.Research work going on is hypothetical, it should be more realistic and practical problems, at the moment most of professors and researchers just changing minute factors and producing publications, and its only for competition of publications.

Societies and buildings are growing like weed, no control over anything, no construction standards, no development standards, no QA/QC, no sustainability under consideration, not a single thought to future of these buildings, just a person announces a building and start selling alongside road, gather public funds and becomes a builder.No thought to site selection, no traffic study, there are 20 storey apartment alongside a 30ft wide rd, there are buildings in the way of river and we are flood prone nation, where are Govt Dept, NDMA, PDMA,(might be waiting to happen something) who is allowing societies to sell river beds or pathways.Sustainable future is necessity for next generation, but our town planners are creating plots in every corner of land, there is not a single society that is harvesting rain water, rain water is drained out and Ground water table is lowering day by day in city areas, we consider it for granted but it is not so, we need to recharge ground water, there are simple techniques that can recharge ground water table.Maintenance of concrete buildings is an issue, there are no post construction inspections, no safety precautions against fire, no proper design of firefighting. Mass concrete production is contributing to climate change and consumption of natural materials unwisely. Buildings shall be inspected after every 5 years for structural integrity for the safety and security of public.Ready Mix concrete supplier are producing third class concrete, no check and balance on them and builders just consider cheapest one, no design mix consideration.Engineers are not doing there part to develop designs and Architects are trying to produce something extra ordinary without thinking of construction strategies, they want to make a sellable product, not a livable, sustainable space for living.Commercialization of professions is killing the nature, society, values, sustainability, standards and ethics.We need to stop and think as a Nation!!! We can do much better.

Engineering design of buildings has many aspects need to be tackled, two mentioned above are core engineering designs, both share responsibilities and require strong collaboration for a practical design, i have not observed a good level of collaboration between the two till now at any project.I could not find reliable geotechnical engineers who could tackle geotechnical issues with geotechnical grounds, solutions are developed in reports but not in actual in field, mostly a driller gets the data of bore log and a jr geologist or geotech technician categorize the soil and a bearing capacity value is mentioned in geotech report by the geotechnical engineer, there are very few soil labs which process samples properly. Client do not understand the importance of geotechnical investigation and in many cases builder or client insists that use nearby area soil report for there plot, and if they agree the go for minimum quoted vendor, and vendor develops report without going to the site or if he performs investigation, he doesnt check plan, he just one or two bores without any proper sampling and SPT and thats it. Geotechnical investigation is most important of engineering design, building sits on it for years (minimum 50 years) thats what building codes specify life of building.Structural engineer take one value bearing capacity and design the foundation, there is very little usage of soil structure interaction. Proper investigation can save the cost or make the building safe if cost is not saved, risk is eliminated, which otherwise could produce severe losses of lives and buildings.In some areas developers developed land with more than 40 to 50 ft of fills, non-engineering, uncategorized, and plots are sold. This is purely geotechnical issue which is tackled by structural engineers with heavy structural foundation costs. Unsustainable approach towards design, every engineering discipline can tackle his problems better, so let the geotechnical engineers develop techniques and stabilize the foundation soils. A sick person can not live happy life on medicines or drugs, he needs to tackle sickness by eliminating causes, with injections its not possible, so structural engineers needs to stop prescribing injections.Collaboration during design and construction can save a lot. Economic crises is on steep up so need to improvise our practices.P.S. there are other engineering discipline and duly regarded, MEP, Environmental, all are equally important and engineering works are team works no single person can practice as engineer, he needs to interact with others.

There is huge gap between the two in Pakistan, engineering graduates comes in field and almost know nothing about industry practices, engineering graduates required to have field knowledge and a fair understanding of there trade, they must know their basic discipline, after two years of engineering degree, they must be exposed to practical jobs, they must be doing part-time practical work near there institute, if they are doing so while graduating they will jump straight into the field, this will give them clarity of mind about there engineering studies and their interest.At the moment engineering students coming from university need at least 6 months to one year to develop basic understanding of the engineering practices.At the start of career engineering graduate shall define their interest very clearly (yes/no rule), they shall go to seniors in the field, have meetings and request someone near you to mentor you, consult different career paths this could make the path easier and vectored.P.S. No engineering is out of scope at any stage, if you have interest and willingness to learn, you can grow, success is yours.