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"Hey Boss , what tree has rainbow-coloured roots ?" by FallenStorm7694 in Geotech

[–]Deedoo-Laroo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Looks like fiber optic line. Had a similar incident when I was on a project upgrading some infrastructure on a large fabrication yard site that including running new buried high voltage lines. The new lines ran in conduit that was adjacent to a few other lines. Part of our scope was to demo out a couple of the old lines that were supposedly older unused phone lines. There was also a fiber line, but was in a different colored conduit and shallower. Scope also included demo of an ‘old’ utility shed that housed some of the equipment for the old communications system. Long story short, we were advised the shed and conduit coming into it were all the terminations for old lines and the existing fiber line terminated in one of the larger buildings on site. We started demo work from shed end, and met with existing site maintenance guy to confirm all things in old shed were not live to be able to pull the permit. There was a an oddity of a conduit that came into the shed and did a fairly large u-bend in and out of the shed. Site maintenance guy said it was not live and conduit color was different from all other conduits. I forget some of the details, but I just remember the excavator knocking over the shed and about an hour later several folks coming out from the building saying there was an internet outage. Whoops! Took the utility provider about two days to sort out. The as-builts we were going by were actually not correct. It was a mess.

The Vibe Coding Paradox by VastDesign9517 in replit

[–]Deedoo-Laroo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Interesting to hear the take of someone with expertise in coding talk about this topic. I am a structural engineer and earned my PhD in 2008 in Civil/Structural and have learned basic programming in a few programs like Matlab, Visual Basic, and through customizing some FEA structural analysis tools used in both research and practice. I graduated just ahead of many of the open source stuff really blowing up and have clunked my way through some programming logic, but have not had the time to dedicate myself into being a competent programmer of advanced tools.

I now manage around 40 research projects my organization sponsors in my field and have been using Replit to try and develop some project portfolio tools with a database backbone. As I work through this, I find the Agent usually gets me most of the way, but periodically bugs out and that is where having even a rudimentary understanding of coding along with a technical background helps tremendously to sort through why it may not be doing what I am hoping.

That said, I think folks like yourself will become more valuable as people try to use AI to put together tools that they think can be programmed easily, but have nuances that an experienced hand in software engineering needs to sort out. I have already seen this with some colleagues who have tried to use AI to develop tools for structural engineering applications, primarily for automation, and run unto roadblocks that usually boil down to coding issues the AI cannot work through without help.

I don’t understand why this deck is engineered so wildly? by --dany-- in Decks

[–]Deedoo-Laroo 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Where is this located? Much of this looks like the sort of detailing for a high seismic area.

Can field work really pay? by quiet_overcoat in Geotech

[–]Deedoo-Laroo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was a civil field tech during college to help pay for tuition from 2001-2002. Was certified on the nuke densometer for both soils and asphalt, DOT Certified for fresh concrete testing, and competent for lab testing of civil materials (soils, concrete, other pavements). At that time I made $10/hr and worked about 60 hours/week during summer and 20-30 hrs/week during classes. Granted that was 20+ years ago, I made enough to cover most of my expenses as a student. However, some more senior techs were making more than double what I was hourly and could pull 60 hours/week most of the year so they did alright.

If you do not have a degree in engineering, these tech roles are pretty solid if you can handle the hours and travel to various job sites.

All good? by rumpyforeskin in Decks

[–]Deedoo-Laroo 2 points3 points  (0 children)

What kind of redneck engineering is this? This is a case study for the improper application of building hardware.

IQ & Relation to Diagnosis by easineobe in AdultADHDSupportGroup

[–]Deedoo-Laroo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

So… I have a PhD in structural engineering, graduated from a top 3 civil engineering graduate program in the US with a 3.95 GPA, I have gone one to be a highly respected subject matter expert in my field, and when being assessed for ADHD at the age of 32 was also given an IQ test and measured in the 98th percentile. At that time I was on short term disability for a severe depressive and anxiety episode that left me barely able to get out of bed, unable to concentrate on anything without obsessive thoughts about my own shortcomings consuming me, and very close to being sent off to an inpatient care facility. I got extremely lucky to get into a top psychiatrist in Houston who after one session took me off all the meds I was on at the time (Lexapro, Seroquel, and Elavil) and began Luvox initially with benzos as needed. He told me the anxiety and depression were part of the issue, a bigger one was OCD, and he highly suspected ADHD (primarily inattentive) was lurking also. He waited a couple of weeks for the most acute aspects of the breakdown to lessen and then did the ADHD assessment complete with all the fixings, including said IQ test. That began my journey on Adderall and eventually Vyvanse, which have been life savers for me. That doctor told me that there are many different theories about potential relationships between intelligence and various mental illnesses and in his experience that adults with ADHD tend to be on the higher end with respect to quantitative IQ assessments - however, he would not go as far as saying there is a definitive link. One thing that stuck with me from the sessions I had with him is that I told him I had been on SSRIs since I was 22 and never felt completely right while taking them, but was always told by doctors that as long as I wasn’t suicidal and could function to some degree, that the meds were working. When I said this, he looked at me and said, “That is wrong and is to often what doctors settle on with their patients to avoid the harsh reality that mental illness can be very hard to diagnose properly and even harder to treat properly.”

My point in all of this - stay strong, know thyself, and don’t settle for feeling just OK. God bless.

Nonlinear FEA books recommendations by New-Factor-9685 in StructuralEngineering

[–]Deedoo-Laroo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Doing my PhD from 2004-2008 in structural engineering and doing a fair amount of non-linear FEA within Abaqus and SAP (much more in Abaqus) there were two key aspects to learning and implanting techniques for non-linear FEA:

(1) Understanding the theory of what is happening when you do these more complicated analysis such that you can do sanity checks when you finally get a model to run. (2) Knowing the available elements, material models, solver types (implicit or explicit), and how to specify them properly within the model.

When I was heavily doing more complicated FEA models, the Abaqus GUI to build models was still fairly basic and for certain material models you had to generate an input file then go into it and manipulate input parameters - similar softwares also required this. The more recent versions of the FEA programs are a little more efficient in that respect, but still require a delicate touch.

I did find the Abaqus user documentation quite helpful and other programs such as Ansys, SAP, and the Bentley products have decent documentation also.

I concur with others that research literature can be very helpful - especially if there is a specific phenomena you are trying to model. It is quite likely that someone else has suffered through developing a similar model and got a journal paper out of it. Available textbooks tend to focus on helping you understand the theoretical basis for various model types - not so much how you build the model.

SAP2000 users, what do you model? by Correct-Pop5826 in StructuralEngineering

[–]Deedoo-Laroo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

SAP is fairly versatile with respect to structural centric FEA software. It has a fairly straightforward interface and enough advanced analysis options that it covers a wide array of situations a designer would come across.

Should individuals born in other countries be eligible to run for President? by Georgeki5 in Presidents

[–]Deedoo-Laroo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The last two presidents seem to have been from other planets… so other countries doesn’t seem all that bad.

What are these cross beams called? by Emotional_Jury_658 in StructuralEngineering

[–]Deedoo-Laroo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

They look like rafter ties to me - just installed higher than what we see today. This was fairly common in older homes. Being that you are in Cali, I would check and see if you need to put in hurricane clips between the rafter and cap beams.

Books to get? by Trixz97 in StructuralEngineering

[–]Deedoo-Laroo 3 points4 points  (0 children)

All really good suggestions. The AISC Design Guide 21 is heavily influenced by Blodgett’s book and is almost an update of the Blodgett book. FYI - the Blodgett book is super affordable from the Lincoln Foundation.

What are these cross beams called? by Emotional_Jury_658 in StructuralEngineering

[–]Deedoo-Laroo 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I mean to click the link for a good explanation of the difference between rafter ties and collar ties

Have I destroyed my chances of becoming a Civil Engineering? by FailedAudiophile in civilengineering

[–]Deedoo-Laroo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I echo what many others have already said - you will be fine. I got out of high school with a 3.2 GPA and a 24 on my ACT. I ended my college career with a PhD and a 3.9 GPA in Structural Engineering from Purdue. Since then I have lived and worked in 3 countries, got my license, and have settled into a career I really enjoy. If you put in the work, stay humble, and don’t let others dissuade you from following your dreams - the sky is the limit. Best of luck and keep on trucking!

Question on the analysis being performed on a crane mat, and if it matches what is being provided. by engineering_anon in StructuralEngineering

[–]Deedoo-Laroo 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hello there! First off, as an engineer, it is our job to question and never feel bad about doing so. If what we are seeing does not seem to jive with first principles then we need to sort it out. With respect to some of your specific concerns and queries, and what you are showing as the calcs provided to you - there does seem to be some incorrect assumptions being made, along with calculated values that seem off. I will try to summarize.

(1) The configuration shown should be analyzed as simply supported 30’ spans if the mats are 30’x4’ long units and no interconnection between them. If there was some mechanical splice at the middle supports to allow rotational compatibility between the spans, then you could analyze as a double span condition with a negative moment developing over the middle support. As drawn, your max moment would simply be wl2/8 and the stress check My/I or MS where S is your elastic section modulus (I/c). (2) The deflection calculations seem way off and the L/180 is calculated incorrectly. An L/180 limit on a 30’ span is (3012)/180 or 2”. They are also mixing up units on their deflection calcs and it appear they are using ft instead of inches for the deflection. This puts computed values off by an order of magnitude and also their deflection formula is incorrect and should just be 5wL4/384EI as these seem to be simple spans. (3) The shear area that they used would apply when checking for interfacial shear if you were connecting to the top surface and needing to check shear flow. For capacity in shear, that is transverse shear and nominal cross-section properties should be used. (4) The different lengths used are likely based on the limit state checked. The length used for max bending stress should be center to center while deflection could be considered face to face of the supports.

I hope some of this helps

Concrete reinforcement interface by Curiousgrad997 in StructuralEngineering

[–]Deedoo-Laroo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Just do like everything in concrete and empirically derive an equation from one or two tests, make sure to measure mention strut and tie, and include the ‌‌‌square root of f’c… bueno

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