Best products from r/StructuralEngineering
We found 11 comments on r/StructuralEngineering discussing the most recommended products. We ran sentiment analysis on each of these comments to determine how redditors feel about different products. We found 10 products and ranked them based on the amount of positive reactions they received. Here are the top 20.
5. Structural Engineering Reference Manual, 8th Ed
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Features:
6. Mechanics of Materials
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Features:
8. History of Strength of Materials (Dover Civil and Mechanical Engineering)
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Features:
Your question is extremely broad but I would suggest this textbook as a starting point. We used it in school for some optimization problems.
https://www.amazon.com/Numerical-Methods-Engineers-Steven-Chapra/dp/0073401064
However, it is worth noting that the "optimum" solution for a structural engineering problem is not always as simple as solving for the least weight solution. Constructability, schedule, architectural considerations, etc play a major role in a succesful project and that doesn't come from iterating properly to a least-cost or least-weight solution.
This won't help much right now, but where I work we use this book. And as far as I know this is the book thats been used for 20 years of designing slabs on grade. It's a great resource and very easy to use. May look into getting it at your work to help with these problems.
I never took any masonry design classes, but I did take a semester of timber design in grad school. I found it to be a particularly interesting class, especially in regards to connection design. I also had a fantastic textbook for the class, this one.
As another post mentioned, the basic concepts are the same between all structural materials. Timber has a lot of adjustment factors depending on the load, material, and environmental conditions, but it's not complicated.
https://www.amazon.com/Tall-Building-Design-Concrete-Composite/dp/146655620X
This book covers a lot of elements of multistorey building design in pretty good depth.
The SERM has a pretty decent introductory section.
I have the American Institute of Timber Construction's
Timber Construction Manual" sixth edition in PDF form. I can email it if you want.
https://www.amazon.com/Timber-Construction-Manual-American-Institute/dp/0470545097
Here's a book I wrote about a long time ago: https://www.amazon.com/History-Strength-Materials-Mechanical-Engineering/dp/0486611876
>the reason that you are seeing so much variance in member sizes is likely due to people not actually designing the members. They’re just shooting from the hip and trying to make themselves feel comfortable.
Heh. This book is apparently by someone who started one of the first timber framing companies in North America, and founded and instructs at a vocational school that specifically teaches timber framed construction.
So he's supposed to know what he's doing, but apparently doesn't, by what you're suggesting.
For comparison, this guy keeps writing technical explanations of why structural members are sized the way they are, and his company goes around looking at buildings that collapse and identifying why they collapsed (inadequate fastening of two members intended to act as one, inadequate bracing, bracing to the truss when the truss isn't designed to account for the lateral load from the column, etc.) and adjusting their practice standards to account for all of these lessons learned.
> If you were mimicking the cookie cutter design completely, then depending on where you live and where the design was intended to be used, you may be fine.
Yeah, that's not happening. I'm not sure if I'm actually creating new, unique engineering problems—kind of like how the first sailboat was built by people who knew how to make windmills, knew how oars worked, but had zero experience with what kinds of loads a mast on a ship dragging along the ocean surface was really going to face. In those kinds of situations, you always face increased risk: you have plenty of theory to work it out, but no real-world lessons learned about the particulars of the specific problem, and so odd and unexpected things can happen.
I know I'm building a bit more than your typical tool shed, though.
Wouldn't this be the same as a pressure vessel calculation from Mechanics class? If you have access to Mechanics of Materials, 8th Edition by Gere & Goodno, it will explain it on page 678.
To summarize, though: