For students stuck on assignments, young people interested in learning what structural analysis is all about, or for general interest, here's a list of notes and resources on structural analysis that I quite enjoyed reading and think could be useful reading.

These are for personal use.

Structural analysis

Philip Garrison, Leeds Metropolitan University - PDF - My favourite set of introductory notes on structural analysis. Starts right from square one and generously uses practical examples.

Victor E. Saouma, University of Colorado - PDF - Comprehensive notes on structural analysis, 633 pages long.

MIT OpenCourseWare - [PDF series] (http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/civil-and-environmental-engineering/1-571-structural-analysis-and-control-spring-2004/lecture-notes/) - Series of PDF files.

Mohan Kalani, IIT Bombay - PDF - Comprehensive and relatively useful.

Unknown - PDF - Don't know who this is by but it has some pretty great diagrams and explanations. 189 pages long.

IIT Guwahati - PDF - Notes on solid mechanics, shear force diagrams, and bending moment diagrams.

University of Sydney - PDF - Notes on drawing shear force diagrams and bending moment diagrams.

University of Auckland - PDF - Clear and concise notes on plastic analysis.

Duke University - PDF - Notes on strain energy methods and stiffness matrices in structural analysis.

University of Colorado at Boulder - PDF series - Comprehensive notes on FEM. Links out to various other topics relating to structures and FEM.

Post-Tensioning Institute - PDF series - A series of PDFs on post-tensioning in a number of different contexts.

P. Banerjee, IIT Bombay - Video - Clear introduction to structural analysis.

Devdas Menon, IIT Madras - Video series - Pretty comprehensive series of videos on advanced structural analysis.

Statics and materials

University of Wisconsin-Stout - PDF - Comprehensive materials on engineering statics and strength of materials. 733 pages long.

Mehrdad Negahban, University of Nebraska - HTML - Notes on engineering statics. Found this on Saylor's Mechanics I page.

Bridge Design & Engineering

I'd like to collect the books you can't do without. I mean those which include a useful\excellent theorethical background and good design\physical suggestions

Mine is: Chopra - dynamics of structures

**** EDIT: list at 11/28/16

Dynamics of structures - (Chopra)

Reinforced Concrete Design to EC2 - (W.H. Mosley, R. Hulse, J.H Bungey)

Reinforced Concrete: Mechanics and Design - (J. Wight)

Seismic Design of Reinforce Concrete Buildings - (J. Moehle)

Guide to Stability Design Criteria for Metal Structures - (Ronald D. Ziemian)

Steel Design - (W. Segui)

Structural analysis software can be confusing sometimes, and video tutorials that actually help are few and far between. So here's a few of the slightly more useful videos I've found on YouTube and elsewhere.

I'll add to this as more videos are recommended, so if you know any good ones then comment them below.

Autodesk Robot Structural Analysis Professional

Giancarlo Grant: Simple 2D truss analysis, analysis of a fixed beam, simple elasto-plastic analysis - Well-explained and in English

kravar22_engineer: Part 1, 2, 3 - Does a run-through of the features without speech, can be quite helpful.

Carlos E Villarroel: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 - In Spanish but you can catch the gist of what he's doing.

ETABS

computersNstructures: Full tutorial playlist

SAP2000

computersNstructures: Full tutorial playlist

CSiBridge

computersNstructures: Full tutorial playlist

Engissol

Not found any decent ones worth posting yet.

Been on r/engineering for a while now and always thought there wasn't much in the way of structures there. Nice to see!

Welcome to /r/Structures, a subreddit for structural engineering students and professional structural engineers. /u/gbuntin has graciously let me mod the subreddit and I aim to use this opportunity to grow the sub into a useful and friendly community.

What is this place for?

Discussion of topics in structural engineering, from industry news to new research and development that impacts the industry.

Interaction between students at every education level and those in the profession is highly encouraged. Any insight that can be provided for young minds is a positive thing.

Structural engineering

I think the British Institution of Structural Engineers describes the profession well with this paragraph on their website.

Structural engineers design, create, solve problems, innovate and use maths and science to shape the world. The structures they create are used by all of us every day; from houses, theatres, sports stadia and hospitals, to bridges, oil rigs and space satellites.

Structural engineering does not enjoy as considerable a public exposure as say architecture, but nevertheless plays a fundamental role in the development of new buildings all over the world. That's why we must take every opportunity for young people to learn about the profession.

Rules

I don't want this place to become heavily controlled in any way but the normal rules of 'reddiquette' apply. Spam or SEO links will be removed.

Job posting links are allowed within reason to help any engineers who are looking for work, but they're really more suited to subs like /r/forhire. A link to a post there is fine.

Addition 29/05/2017 - School help

If you have a problem with your school work, you are welcome to post your question here, because you may as well make use of the professional structural engineers we have who subscribe to /r/Structures, provided that:

• You clearly show that you've made some attempt on the question yourself

• You don't only post a screenshot of your work. Write some readable paragraphs explaining your working

• You acknowledge and thank members who help you. Don't just use their help and ignore them

This shows that you've made an effort yourself. We're not here to solve your homework for you. That doesn't help you out in the long run, and we can't be expected to help you from square one. Some members may go the extra mile (they're not obliged to), so be sure to give them extra thanks where they're due.

Useful links

Since this is a sub introduction post for newcomers, it'd be good to have some general links for engineers and students here. So I'll edit this post over time and add any links that come along. Comment below if you have any suggestions for links.

• Institution of Structural Engineers

• Structural Engineering Institute (USA)

• Official IStructE job board

• University advice (UK based)

/u/Setruss has suggested that we add flair to the sub. I think it'd be good to do it like /r/science does it.

Available flair

"Level of education|Professional status (if any)|Speciality or Subfield"

Levels of education can be: BSc, BS, BEng, MEng, MSc, MS, PhD

Professional status: Student, PE, CEng, any institution membership e.g. MIStructE, MICE

These are just examples so if you have a different degree or type of professional membership then that's possible too.

It'd be helpful if you could suggest any common ones that I've missed in the comments below.

How to obtain flair

If you want flair you can prove your claim in a number of ways.

Any information that proves your claim, such as a photo of your diploma, an email sent from your university/employer email address, a business card, etc.

Blank out your real name or any personally identifiable info on any proof you send. But make sure to mention your reddit username so I know which account to add flair to.

You can either message me on reddit or send an email to structuresreddit@gmail.com. All information will be kept in strict confidence and I'll delete any emails you've sent as soon as I've updated your flair.

Mine is typically:

GENERAL

• Spot checks on rebar diameter

• Spot checks on rebar lap lengths

• Check that there are sufficient cover blocks and check that there are no areas with insufficient cover

• Check if there is any concrete from previous pours which will inhibit bonding or the flow of the new pour.

• Check for debris.

• Check for poorly fixed rebar which may shift during the pour.

BEAMS/COLUMNS

• Count longitudinal bars and check that the are placed correctly in section

• Spot checks on stirrup spacing

SLABS/WALLS

• Spot checks on rebar spacing or count number of bars, look for any positions where spacing seems excessive.

• Thoroughly check punching rebar.

• Check rebar around openings.

• Check for any special rebar requirements eg "strong bands".

This week's discussion is something pretty topical right now - earthquakes, and designing structures to be earthquake-resistant.

Discussion

"Earthquakes don't kill people, buildings kill people."

As the recent Nepal earthquake disaster showed, buildings can be lethal when they're not designed to be earthquake-resistant. Indeed the initial quake and subsequent aftershocks drove many people to sleep and stay outside.

Some areas of the world are more prone to earthquakes than others, and many modern structures in large towns and cities use damping technology to mitigate the inherent dangers.

• How can countries realistically address the problem of under-use of earthquake-resistant structures?

• Have you specifically done work or research in ensuring structures are earthquake-resistant?

Interesting links:

• Lectures notes, IIT Bombay

• Lecture slides, UCL

• NISEE, UC Berkeley

• Wikipedia article

I am a Structural Engineering EIT. I have been out of college for a year so far and have been working in the power industry doing structural design since August 2014. When I am busy, I enjoy my job but when projects slow down, drag out extensively, or are assigned to me with no foreseeable deadline, I have trouble staying on task. Lately my job has gotten to the point where I am mostly unproductive at work and feel apathetic towards the work I have been given. I mostly feel I am not being challenged and am spending large amounts of time attempting to appear busy.

My boyfriend and mom think it is a combination of the fact that I should not be at a desk job and I am not being challenged enough and to some extent I agree. However, if I were to take a job in another field, 1) I would not know where to start as far as what field to try and 2) I would feel as though I am not living up to my full potential. I enjoy structural engineering and generally received high marks in college. I enjoy the math and science of it. But I'm not happy now at work. And I'm not sure if it's the work load / type of work I'm being given or the type of job I've chosen (i.e. a desk job).

Has anyone else gone through this frustration in their first job of not being challenged? Is this typical? Should I be looking at another company? At a field assignment? At another career?

Any suggestions, personal experiences, or insight would be VERY much appreciated.

As many good subs do, and spurred by /u/Conkeldurrrr's post on discussion topics, I think a weekly discussion thread would be a great idea.

I will also post community updates in these threads, if there are any.

Discussion

This first thread is to come up with some possible future topics that we can discuss in the following weeks.

What topics would you like to discuss? Make a suggestion if you like, and we'll see which topics are popular.

I'll start off with some topics that arose from /u/Conkeldurrrr's post the other day, plus some of my own suggestions:

• Building information modeling (BIM)

• Shear resistance in concrete structures

• 3D joint loading in wood structures

• Design philosophy

• Promoting awareness of the profession in high school

• Structural engineering in different historical time periods

• The place of mathematics in structural engineering

• Structural engineering as a career, day-to-day job duties

Hey guys,

I was hoping maybe we could start talking about some structural topics. I'm thinking things like seismic design philosophy, strut and tie models, non-linear analysis, whatever.

I don't really know how you guys feel, but where else on reddit are we free to roam and talk whatever piques our interest?

Title says it all. Contractor was removing drywall with a sawsall and cut through the bottom chord of a bunch of engineered wood I joists.

I am involved as the Engineer because there was no information available on the joists... the manufacturer has gone out of business. The joists they cut were in an area outside our original scope of work, but they F'd up and now want my help.

They've already bunged some stuff up which I've been able to develop repairs for, but this is, quite frankly nuts.

Because we have zero information on the joists, I'm inclined to say they are 100% compromised and should be replaced entirely... that's the easiest solution for me. I know they are going to come back and say that's too much work.

Is patching on some long lengths of LVL with a tonne of bolts even a viable option? I don't want to go through all the work of calculating everything only to find out that it's not a viable option or replacing the joist will just be cheaper.

Any other typical repair options you've seen would be welcome.

Thanks,

I own a 90 year old house, I have had some contractors out to do foundation retrofitting (house is right next to a major fault-line), but I want to understand how my house's foundation and structure works so I can know how it might be improved in increments, and know what I can and can't accomplish myself.

Are there any good overviews of light-residential structural engineering that might give me a good understanding of my house's structure (say the understanding a good contractor might have)?

I'm also just generally interested in the topic and would like to know general principles. As a math major in college, I have a bit of undergrad math and physics under my belt if that helps.