What is Structural Engineer?

A lazy day for me at the office. Started to read topics I kept on hold. Stopped at the theory manual of Settle3. It's a software for Geotechnical Engineers. Not really my forte. Got into the topic of Preconsolidation Pressure.  Now what is it? One could define it as a memory pressure for the soil. It represents the maximum effective stress experienced by the soil in the past. It's the Newton's third law of motion.  Now you don't have to understand the graph completely. I don't get it too. But I am here to explain my part.  First understand what a Consolidation is. It is the gradual release of water in the soil when weight is applied to it, causing the soil particles to reorganize and settle.  It helps in creating a solid foundation stability for the structures, minimization of settlements and also improves the soil strength.  Consolidation causes the application of force (weight). Preconsolidation pressure is the reaction to it. It is the maximum effective press...

Define Loads: The amount of weight carried by a structure, as per Cambridge Dictionary. Loads are what we design the structures for. So, it is imperative to work on it carefully. Defining loads is usually a one-time thing which is sorted out at the start of a project, but there could be changes. And as an Engineer, it's always important to understand the know-how.  In the Construction Industry, there are certain specified load patterns. These are Dead, Live, Wind, Snow, Earthquake and Special Loads. Now I won't go around explaining the different kinds of loads in this blog. It is quite vast. What I would be writing about is the way to incorporate these loads in the software.  First you have to define the Load Patterns . It looks as below. Load Patterns Here, you can define the types of loads. You can see there are lots. One should know the different load types while defining one. For example, Dead denotes the self-weight of the elements of a structure while Super Dead load con...