Discover the pivotal role that structural engineers play in the construction process, taking responsibility for designing buildings that can support their own weight and withstand external forces such as wind and earthquakes. Learn about the two key packages a structural engineer presents to a regulatory agency: the documents being reviewed and the structural calculations relayed to the construction inspectors.
Key Insights
- Structural engineers are key figures in any construction project, responsible for ensuring that buildings are designed to support their load and resist external forces like wind and earthquakes.
- They present two types of packages to regulatory agencies - documents for review and structural calculations, which provide detailed information about the building's design, from concrete reinforcement to the placement of reinforcement materials inside concrete.
- Structural engineers meticulously design components such as made-of-wood beams, with any modifications potentially endangering the integrity of the system. They also ensure that buildings can perform under various conditions, like bending with the wind or seismic activity, by specifying how members should be assembled and nailed together.
One of the most important members of the construction team is the Structural Engineer. The Structural Engineer is responsible for designing the building properly to keep it standing. The Structural Engineer normally presents two packages to the regulatory agency.
One is their document package. The documents are these papers that we are reviewing. Another set includes the structural calculations, which are provided to the construction inspectors.
The Structural Engineer designs the building to support the load or weight of the structure and to resist wind loads, earthquakes, and other related factors. Every project in this country that is being built requires a Structural Engineer to evaluate the building.
You can see that this first page is the structural notes page. The section in this area talks about the general requirements in terms of the loads that are being absorbed by the building. There are general notes that discuss what should be happening during construction.
Here below, there is information about the specifications of the foundation. We have reinforced concrete. Now, if your house has a concrete floor, keep in mind that there is reinforcement inside the floor to hold together and reinforce the concrete.
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Therefore, this section will detail the appropriate information for the concrete. We also have a section on reinforcing steel, a section on structural wood requirements, and other relevant information. There is an area here called special inspections.
On certain occasions during construction, it is required that a professional observes the conditions of the construction. You can see that in this project, there are special inspections for floor reports and also to ensure the proper placement of the reinforcement materials inside the concrete.
So, again, the structural notes provide a general view of the requirements necessary for the construction. The next page is also structural notes. One thing that is happening in this project is that we are using manufactured wood beams.
The manufactured wood beams usually use 2x4 wood members. They are designed with precision. For example, if you have a house and you decide that you want to install a pendant light fixture in the ceiling, and that requires you to cut into the wood of the truss—
Do not even think about doing it. These truss systems are exceptionally designed with precision, and any modification to the wood truss system would endanger the entire structure.
So, they are making comments about the wood trusses. We have nailing schedules. What the nailing schedules do is ensure the building performs as designed.
And by performance, I mean to support loads properly and handle forces like shearing. Shearing refers to the need for a building to bend or flex in response to lateral wind or seismic conditions. In those cases, we need nailed components secured in a specific way. By members, I mean the assembly of structural wood elements.
There are structural abbreviations so that, just like in our other drawings, when reviewing the building plans, we will see notes like HDR, which is the abbreviation for Header. We have JST, an abbreviation for joist.
We also have our legend, which simply explains what is happening when you see a symbol in the construction plans—how that information is being properly communicated. You can see we have different types of lines that represent different information.
We have the shear panels. Shear panels, again, are used to address lateral loads in response to structural flexing. We have certain icons that represent the shear panels.
You will also see information about the grid lines, and we will talk about them in the following videos.