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View Full Version : any of you engineers have experience w/ structures?



Ankf00
03-02-10, 07:40 PM
going through online screening questions with this solar thermal company, after HR sent a "sorry you dont fit email" then today a "hey, about that earlier email, we were just joking" structures (specifically materials selection for outdoors structures and al-alloy vs steel alloy attributes regarding the specific application) are not exactly my thing... :\

would give left nut to hire on at this place though.

Please PM if so :)

nrc
03-03-10, 01:33 AM
I only know what I've learned from "Seconds from Disaster" and "Destroyed in Seconds".

Test: What's wrong with this picture:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/29/HRWalkway.svg/500px-HRWalkway.svg.png

Ankf00
03-03-10, 01:35 AM
:laugh:

Opposite Lock
03-03-10, 12:15 PM
I only know what I've learned from "Seconds from Disaster" and "Destroyed in Seconds".

Test: What's wrong with this picture:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/29/HRWalkway.svg/500px-HRWalkway.svg.png

^I remember that diagram well from school, and from several seminars since about the importance of carefully reviewing shop drawings. It's a depiction of the walkway collapse at the Kansas City Hyatt in 1981. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyatt_Regency_walkway_collapse

The contractor thought that the original design which called for long continuously threaded rods would be problematic because of probable damage to the threads while hoisting the decks. If the rod threads became damaged, it would have made spinning the nuts all the way up the rods difficult to impossible. Therefore they sought to use shorter, more manageable lengths of rod, but apparently during the shop drawing review process, no one caught that this subtle change was really a dramatic change in terms of actual loading.

The beams ruptured thusly:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/Hyatt_Regency_collapse_support.PNG

rosawendel
03-03-10, 01:04 PM
I'm not sure if it's as a result of this disaster or not, but these days verbage akin to "approval of these shop drawings does not alleviate the general contractor from the requirements of the construction documents" is pretty common...

that said, fingers still get pointed though...

Elmo T
03-03-10, 01:43 PM
Seems there are disclaimers on every construction document these days. :rolleyes:

And you will be amazed at what some design professionals are willing to sign and seal these days. Some are referred to as juke boxes - put your money in and they will play any song you like. Some are referred to in less politically correct terms. :shakehead

Based on phone calls to our office - solar design and installation is a good place to be nowadays.