Happy Wednesday, It’s already post #7 of the engineering mechanics series. So far we’ve covered the different static systems, static determinacy, types of loads on beams, and how to calculate reaction forces and internal forces. Today and in the next weeks, we’ll look more in detail at specific static systems and use all the knowledge we gained from the first #5 posts to perform hand calculations. Today, we’ll start with the most important static system in structural engineering - the simply...
about 9 hours ago • 4 min read
Hi friends, 👋👋 Last week we calculated reaction forces. This week we’ll show how to calculate internal forces such as bending moments, normal forces and shear forces of statically determinate structures. Calculating internal forces is one of the first things we learn in uni, which we need throughout our career. Based on internal forces, structural elements such as timber beams, steel columns, and concrete slabs are designed and verified. Here’s what we’ll cover: What internal forces are Sign...
about 9 hours ago • 3 min read
Hello and happy Wednesday, Today, we’ll quickly introduce the timber material properties we use to design timber elements like the compression strength, bending strength and partial safety factors. These material properties are the fundamentals of structural design. In this article, we’ll explain what properties are important, where we find them and how to calculate them (if needed). So, let’s get into it. The 12 Most Important Timber Properties Material properties of timber are really...
10 days ago • 5 min read
Hi friends, As I said in last week's email, episode #2 of the timber design series will be sent out next Wednesday. I wanted to quickly talk about two things: the Structural Basics membership and the polls I did my latest video where I share a week in my life as a Structural Engineer A Week in my Life as a Structural Engineer I published a new YouTube video where I share a typical week in my life. In the video I talk about my routines, projects I am currently working on and tools I use at...
17 days ago • 2 min read
Hi friends, In the last episodes we covered all the basics such as static systems, determinacy of beams and types of loads. Now we are ready to start calculating (finally). Today, we’ll look at how we calculate the reaction forces of static systems due to loads. Next week, we’ll go a step further and calculate internal forces (normal and shear force and bending moment) based on loads and reaction forces. So in this post we’ll first discuss what structural supports/reactions are, then we’ll...
18 days ago • 3 min read
Hi friends, In the first #2 episodes of the engineering mechanics series, we talked about the different static systems and which of these are statically determinate/indeterminate. Today, we’ll look at the different types of loads that we apply to these static systems/beams. Before we get started, we need to clarify the term “load”. In general, we differentiate between characteristic loads calculated according to Codes (like Eurocode) and, as I call them, geometrical loads which are basically...
18 days ago • 2 min read
Hi friends, 👋👋 Last week, we talked about the different static systems that we use in structural engineering. All these static systems are either statically determinate or indeterminate. Whether a structure is statically determinate or not has a big influence on the calculation of the internal forces. So today, we’ll discover what statically determinate and indeterminate systems are, example structures and how you can calculate the degree of indeterminacy. So let’s get started. 🔥🔥 What is a...
18 days ago • 2 min read
Hi friends, 👋👋 Today we’re kicking off the new series about Engineering Mechanics with the first topic: Static Systems. And it couldn’t be a more important part of structural engineering. In structural engineering, we use static systems in almost every calculation. Static systems have a big influence on the internal forces and therefore the outcome and behaviour of the design as it. Because of that, it’s crucial to have a good understanding of it. In university, we get introduced to simply...
18 days ago • 4 min read
Hi friends, There are many of you who didn’t study civil or structural engineering in uni. And Structural engineering is based on fundamentals such as engineering mechanics, which can be quite difficult to self-learn. That’s why we’ll kick off a new series about engineering mechanics, which are taught in the first semesters, but we structural engineers use on a daily basis in our jobs. So, we’ll touch base on: Static systems Static determinacy and indeterminacy Types of loads on beams...
18 days ago • 1 min read
