Skills needed in today's Changing World

To become successful Engineer, One need to develop both Hard and Soft skills

Hard Skills

1. Importance rating for success - 15%
2. Academic Qualifications
3. Expertise
4. Work Experience

Soft Skills

1. Importance rating for success - 85%
2. Attitude for learning
3. Motivates
4. Values
5. Adaptability

How can soft skills be acquired

1. Discover more about your personality, strengths and weaknesses and commit to creating a plan of action to address them
2. Practise presenting yourself - Your appearance and personality are as important as your knowledge about theories and concepts
3. Practice active listening, paraphrasing - pay attention to the rules of conversation; take notes to aid your understanding
4. Think big and practice your creative and innovation skills
5. Improving awareness skills reading and comprehending information
6. Remain positive - try to learn something from every experience

Characteristics of Soft - Skilled Individuals

1. Strong work ethic
2. Positive Attitude
3. Good Communication skills
4. Time Management skills
5. Problem Solving skills
6. Acting as a team player
7. Self confidence
8. Ability to accept and learn from criticism
9. Flexibility and Adaptability
10. Working well under pressure

Characteristics of successful engineering leadership

• Believable
• Dependable
• Trustworthy
• Accountable
• Integrity
• Effective
• Consistency
• likeability

all above will turn into Credibility

Hemant Gor, Compiled from Gulf News www.gnads4u.com/jobs

Interview Questions for Structural Engineers

Draw Deflected shape and Bending Moment Diagram (BMD) for following beams

Hemant Gor (GorHemant@Gmail.com)

Structural Engineer Interview Question Bending MOment Diagram

Draw bending moment and shear force diagram for above structures

Smart Google Search Tips for Engineers

We use Google to search information day in and day out. One can provide few clues to make the Google Search quick and effective. The Clues are in the form of search within particular domain (Universities: edu, ac.uk, Government: gov, gov.ae) or website or searching text within particular file format ( Excel file, Word file, Powerpoint file, PDF file)

Simple Google search for the string “tall building” will give 2.24 Million pages on the web. One can narrow down this search by providing clue to the Google.

Clue means telling Google to search within particular site/domain/country/company/university etc.

The Google Option to find the “tall building” string within domain/website are following

·         Searching within American Universities – site:edu

·          Searching within British Universities – site:ac.in

·         Searching within IIT Bombay site – site:iitb.ac.in

·         Search within Indian Companies – site:in

·         Search within file sharing website site:4shared.com

The string “tall building” can be found inside any of the following file types

·         Microsoft Word file ( Clue for Google – filetype:doc )

·         Microsoft Excel File ( Clue for Google – filetype:xls )

·         Microsoft Power Point Presentation file ( Clue for Google – filetype:ppt )

·         Acrobat PDF file ( Clue for Google – filetype:pdf )

·         Post Script file ( filetype:ps)

Examples of Using Google Smart (Advance) Search:

If one wants to find the string “tall building” within the website of Council on Tall Buildings & Urban Habitat (www.ctbuh.org), Use following information in Search box

Similarly to find the books on “Tall building” inside file sharing website 4shared.com

Searching Particular File format:

One can find only Power Point Presentation file containing the string “Tall Building” through Universities in America, using following input in Search Box

Google can help to find only PDF files containing the complete phrase “Tall Building” inside Universities in UK using following information inside search box

Searching the string “Tall Building” within Acrobat PDF files on American University websites

Use of Both filetype and site clue will make google search quick and effective

Hemant Gor, GorHemant@GMail.com

Interview Questions for Structural Engineers

1. Draw Deflected Shape, Shear Force and Bending Moment Diagram for all above structures
2. What is effect of Creep in Reinforced Concrete Beams?
3. Compute maximum soil pressure for 3m x 3m size isolated pad footing with Force = 1000kN and Moment about one axis 600kNm
4. Define Ductility?
5. Please describe the methods to find Flexural tensile strength of concrete?
6. What is reason behind keeping limit on maximum shear strength of Concrete?
7. How to arrive at structural working load capacity of axially loaded pile?
8. Compute maximum compression in Pile for Group of 9 Piles ( 3 Row x 3 Columns) spaced at 3m c/c, Force transferred on Pile Cap, F = 1000t (Down) , Moments, Mx = 400tm My = 200tm

Initial Sizing of Steel Beam Section

The first step of preliminary / detailed design of structure is initial sizing of main structural members. This blog gives quick method of selecting steel section for Beam/Girder. The design of beam requires to satisfy the strength and serviceability provisions of codes. 

The Minimum Second Moment of Inertia of Beam Section I ( in cm^4) required is 

I = 0.5 x Ratio x K x L x M

Here,

M is Mid Span Beam Bending Moment is kNm

L is Span of Beam in m

K is constant based on loading and end supports, it is based on Bending moment diagram of span The value of K is taken from Table 1. ( Reference Table 3.1 of BS 8110-2:1985)

Ratio is Span / Allowable Deflection. It means Allowable Deflection = Span/Ratio

The value of "Ratio"  can be 250,360,400,500  or 600 based on what is going to be put on Beam/Girder

Table 1 Values of K for various Bending Moment Diagram
for allowable deflection = Span/400, The I required for Beam=0.5x400xK L M

I= 200K L M

I is in cm^4 unit. 

Bridge Superstructure

Bridge Superstructure

The loads coming over bridge superstructure are taken by following actions in individual members

• Bending ( Flexure and Shear in Member)
• Axial elongation or axial shortening ( Tension or Compression in Member)
• Combination of Bending and Axial Deformation (Flexure, Shear and Tension/Compression)

Girder Bridges

In this structural form the loads are taken fully by bending of superstructure. In this type of superstructure the loads are taken by members as flexure and shear. The design of superstructure is governed by flexure, shear and deflection criteria. Girder bridges can be anyone of following type

• Solid Slab ( Span 4m – 12m)
• Voided Slab ( Span 8m-16m)
• T Girder ( Girder and Slab) ( Span 12m-25m)
• Box Girder ( Single or Multi Cell) (25m – 60m)

The girder can be simply supported between two adjacent piers or continuous over more than one pier. The Continuous girder provide following advantage over simply supported girder

· Shallower depth superstructure compared to simply supported girders

· Reduce number of expansion joints

· Reduce number of Bearing required to support superstructure

· The continuous girders have redundancy

The continuous girders are not used under weak soil foundation. The settlement of support (Un-even settlement) will generate additional moments and shear in superstructure in case of continuous girder.

In Girder only extreme fibres are only stressed to maximum limit.

Truss Bridges

In this structural form the loads are taken by axial deformation of individual members. In truss bridges the loads are taken by members as axial tension or axial compression. Under axial tension/compression action all fibre of section are stressed to same limit. Hence truss bridges are best structural form for long spans. The truss bridge can be through type or deck type based on traffic movement.

The truss bridges are of following type

• Pratt Truss
• Warren Truss
• Modified Warren Truss
• K Bracing Truss