What is Structural Engineer?

As Engineers, we like to assume. I didn't appreciate it much earlier, but I will tell you why we do that.  Most of the formulas we study during our Bachelors, well I have only completed my Bachelors yet, there's always some assumptions mentioned before a formula, Always.  Thin Beam Model Critical Buckling Load Now why do we assume if it's not the actual response. It makes our life easier, by that I mean the calculation time and effort for getting into something. And it gets the job done. As I earlier once wrote in my blog : Acceptable within the Engineering world, due to certain circumstances. Does it mean we are wrong, NO! Most of the assumptions give the limits too. One such assumption is the Engineering Strain .  A comparison. Engineering Strain is a straight line which indicates that the strain in a structure varies linearly although that is far from actual scenario. In actual life, or per experimentation, the strain doesn't vary linearly. It sorts of curve down as ...

A lazy Sunday afternoon on my apartment balcony, a friend sitting beside me on a bucket. Conversing rubbish most probably. As he got up to leave, the bucket he was sitting on crumbled. A normal occurrence with thin buckets. See, in my practice, that crumbling of bucket is called buckling. And rightly so, buckling came to my mind. So, what of it? Not that I have to design the bucket to resist my friend's weight. But you might agree with me on my intuition.  The formula for critical buckling load is quite eye catching. It's one of the easiest to remember, if you get what I mean. So, as you might have guessed it by now. My quest began to find the elastic modulus of the plastic.  First, I got a measuring tape to measure the dimensions. A bucket with a smaller diameter of 23 cm, large diameter of 32 cm and a Height of 32 cm. The bucket in question.  Those are actually the diameters and not radius as I wrote on my stickons. Taking pinned connection at the bottom, as it is not f...

The ill-condition error is the one we dread the most. One which can take days to solve, if we ever find it. Now I won't be able to help you with clearing this particular error at a snap. There are certain modelling techniques I follow to ensure an error free model. While modelling the structure, connecting all the elements node to node is a must. This is an FEA software, you need the transfer of reactions whether it be loads, deflection or moments. As per my experience in RC structures, most of the errors/warnings can be solved through this. Minimize use of the option of all floors or use with caution. It helps when others work on your model too. There goes the modelling basics, now let's get to the part of debugging. There are various kinds of errors, I might not remember all of it while I am writing this blog but I will try to answer the best I can. Well for starters, standard solver would be the best. Although it takes much longer to analyse, it does give the error locations...