Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Professional Achievement/special
knowledge:
License Professional Engineer (P.E.)
License Structural Engineer (S.E.) in U.S.
Special Interest:
Peer Review/Checking (Structural ) of projects
designed in house or designed by out side
consulting companies. Sharing my experience with
you Young Engineers (Mentoring).
Professionalism in Engineering
Here I produce Professionalism as defined in
"Recommended Guidelines For The Practice Of Structural Engineering in California". Fifth
Edition September 1999. By Professional Practice Committee of Structural Engineers
Association Of California (SEAOC), Section 2 , Pages 1-2 thru 1-4.
2. PROFESSIONALISM
2.1 General: The essence of professionalism is integrity and honesty. Engineers should maintain ethical
and professional standards when performing structural Engineering Services.
2.2 Obligation to the Public: When performing structural engineering services, an engineer should:
2.2.1 Endeavor to protect the general health and safety of the public, as well as fulfill obligations to clients.
2.2.2 Perform services only within the engineers area of expertise.
2.2.3 Perform services in an objective, honest, and impartial manner, basing decisions on education,
analysis, knowledge, experience, and sound engineering judgment
2.2.4 Issue public statements in an objective and a truthful manner.
2.2.5 Refer deceit, misrepresentation, violation of contract, fraud, negligence, or incompetency of others
performing Structural Engineering services to the Board of Registration for Professional Engineers and Land
Surveyors. An objective and unbiased approach to referring such acts to the Board of Registration is
important.
2.3 Obligation to the Client: When performing structural engineering services, an Engineer should:
2.3.1 Act faithfully and honestly in the clients best interest, and respect the confidentiality of information
obtain from, and on behalf of, the client.
Professionalism in Engineering ..
Continue
2.3.2 Disclose to the client real and potential conflict of interest prior to
performing services for the client, thus offering the client the opportunity to
decide whether a conflict of interest would be detrimental to the interest of the
client.
2.3.3 Solicit professional assignments in an ethical and professional manner.
2.3.4 Accurately represent the engineers qualifications and experience.
2.4 Obligation to the Profession:
When performing Structural Engineering services, an Engineer should:
2.4.1 Uphold the integrity and dignity of the profession.
2.4.2 Perform professional services with honesty and fairness.
2.4.3 Actively support professional societies and organizations dedicated to the
advancement of knowledge within the profession.
2.5 Obligation to Colleagues, Employers , and Employees:
When Performing Structural Engineering services, an engineer should:
2.5.1 Act with fairness, honesty, objectivity, and respect in relationship with
other engineers.
2.5.2 Recognize and respect the professional contributions of Colleagues,
employers, and employees.
2.5.3 Render an opinion of the work of another engineer based upon an
unbiased, comprehensive evaluation of the work, recognizing that there may be
alternate methods used to achieve acceptable results.
RESPONSIBILITY OF A STRUCTURAL
ENGINEER OF RECORD (SER)
For a time being think that you have your consulting firm in some city in USA. In USA as
compared to India, Liability Laws are very strong. Thats my opinion. You firm designed
one of the three recently failed structures (See recent postings in SEFI) in India.
1) A Chimney Failure.
2) A Coal Bunker Failure.
3) Jalandhar Factory Collapse. 20 died, 75 Injured.
Client ( Owner) of these Plants will sue your firm. There will be expert witnesses in the
court. Finally Court decides that this was a Design/Detailing flaw. Court will order Heavy
penalties (Money awards for damages). Also you as a HOD(Civil/Structural) or MD of your
firm will loose your P.E. or S.E. license to practice Structural Engineering. With this, my
best guess is you will not be in business of Structural Engineering anymore .
Sorry to point such a bleak picture but this is the way Structural Engineering is practice
in USA. Liability, taking responsibility of mistakes and when required paying heavy court
fines are always expected from us engineers.
So my advice to you is when you submit a project proposal have enough Man Hrs to
implement Quality Assurance using these Industry Standards from USA.
http://www.structuremag.org/article.aspx?articleID=
336
Indrajit Barua.
regards
murali
Continue
Lessons
The failure of the Tower of Pisa is without doubt unique for a number
of reasons ranging from the fact that it is a failure that has been
occurring essentially on a continuous basis for more than 800 years.
Despite the extensive investigations and analyses conducted over
the past 60 years, there is still no consensus on the cause of failure.
What is significant however is that finally, after 8 centuries, the
condition of the tower has been improved.
For more details use web link
http://
matdl.org/failurecases/Building_Collapse_Cases/Tower_
of_Pisa
Failed Building
Designed Building
Unfortunately, 2000 Commonwealth Avenue would not be the last project that suffered from
faulty construction practices leading to a punching shear failure and progressive collapse of
the
building. Skyline Plaza was one of the first major failures to follow Commonwealth Avenue.
Similar to the collapse in Boston this 30 story concrete structure failed due to early removal
of
shores, insufficient concrete strength, and improper construction planning. Harbour Bay
Condominium was another case of a building project that resulted in a collapse during
construction. Again procedural errors were largely to blame leading to a punching shear
failure
and progressive collapse during construction. Immediately following the collapse a summary
of
the failure at Commonwealth Avenue was available but the details were not widely known.
Skyline Plaza and Harbour Bay both could have benefitted from the timely dissemination of
information about this failure. For a further discussion of similar failures please review
Concrete
System Collapses and Failures During Construction.
For more details use web link
http://matdl.org/failurecases/Building_Collapse_Cases/2000_Commonwealth
Lesson learned:
The NBS investigation concluded that the probable cause of the
collapse was a punching shear failure of the 23rd floor The premature
removal of forms supporting the 23rd story slab when the concrete of
that slab had a relatively low strength produced shear stresses in excess
of the concrete capacity at the time of the incident Most of the
eyewitness reports indicated deflection in the 23rd and 24th story slabs
[varying from 6 in. to 2 ft. (152 mm to 0.6 m)] which increased over a 15
or 20 min time period before failure The loss of support from any one
of these columns led to overstressing of the slab around the remaining
columns and the failure propagated through the 23rd floor until a stable
configuration remained. The accumulation and impact of falling debris
from the collapsing 23rd and 24th floors overloaded the 22nd floor slab
and induced the progressive collapse of successive floors down to the
ground (Carino et al. 1983, p. 41).
http://matdl.org/failurecases/
Thanks.