Structural engineering is a field of engineering dealing with the analysis and design of structures that support or resist loads.

Structural engineering is usually considered a specialty within civil engineering, but it can also be studied in its own right.[1] Structural engineers are most commonly involved in the design of buildings and large nonbuilding structures[2] but they can also be involved in the design of machinery, medical equipment, vehicles or any item where structural integrity affects the item's function or safety. Structural engineers must ensure their designs satisfy given design criteria, predicated on safety (e.g. structures must not collapse without due warning) or serviceability and performance (e.g. building sway must not cause discomfort to the occupants). Structural engineering theory is based upon physical laws and empirical knowledge of the structural performance of different materials and geometries. Structural engineering design utilizes a number of simple structural elements to build complex structural systems. Structural engineers are responsible for making creative and efficient use of funds, structural elements and materials to achieve these goals.[2]
Contents [hide] 1 Structural Engineer (Professional) 2 History of Structural Engineering 3 Timeline 4 Specializations 5 Structural elements 6 See also 7 References 8 External links 9 Further reading

Structural Engineer (Professional)[edit]

Main article: Structural Engineer Structural engineers are responsible for engineering design and analysis. Entry-level structural engineers may design the individual structural elements of a structure, for example the beams, columns, and floors of a building. More experienced engineers may be responsible for the structural design and integrity of an entire system, such as a building.

Structural engineers often specialize in particular fields, such as bridge engineering, building engineering, pipeline engineering, industrial structures, or special mechanical structures such as vehicles, ships or aircraft. Structural engineering has existed since humans first started to construct their own structures. It became a more defined and formalised profession with the emergence of the architecture profession as distinct from the engineering profession during the industrial revolution in the late 19th century. Until then, the architect and the structural engineer were usually one and the same - the master builder. Only with the development of specialised knowledge of structural theories that emerged during the 19th and early 20th centuries did the professional structural engineer come into existence. The role of a structural engineer today involves a significant understanding of both static and dynamic loading, and the structures that are available to resist them. The complexity of modern structures often requires a great deal of creativity from the engineer in order to ensure the structures support and resist the loads they are subjected to. A structural engineer will typically have a four or five year undergraduate degree, followed by a minimum of three years of professional practice before being considered fully qualified. Structural engineers are licensed or accredited by different learned societies and regulatory bodies around the world (for example, the Institution of Structural Engineers in the UK). Depending on the degree course they have studied and/or the jurisdiction they are seeking licensure in, they may be accredited (or licensed) as just structural engineers, or as civil engineers, or as both civil and structural engineers. Another international organisation is IABSE (Internation Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering).[3] The aim of that association is to exchange knowledge and to advance the practice of structural engineering worldwide in the service of the profession and society.

History of Structural Engineering[edit]

Main article: History of structural engineering

Pont du Gard, France, a Roman era aqueduct circa 19 BC.

Structural engineering dates back to 2700 B.C.E. when the step pyramid for Pharaoh Djoser was built by Imhotep, the first engineer in history known by name. Pyramids were the most common

major structures built by ancient civilizations because the structural form of a pyramid is inherently stable and can be almost infinitely scaled (as opposed to most other structural forms, which cannot be linearly increased in size in proportion to increased loads).[4] However, it is important to note that the structural stability of the pyramid is not primarily a result of its shape. The integrity of the pyramid is intact as long as each of the stones is able to support the weight of the stone above it. [5] The limestone blocks were taken from a quarry near the build site. Since the compressive strength of limestone is anywhere from 30 to 250 MPa (MPa = Pa * 10^6), the blocks will not fail under compression. [6] Therefore the structural strength of the pyramid stems from the material properties of the stones from which it was built rather than the pyramid's geometry. Throughout ancient and medieval history most architectural design and construction was carried out by artisans, such as stone masonsand carpenters, rising to the role of master builder. No theory of structures existed, and understanding of how structures stood up was extremely limited, and based almost entirely on empirical evidence of 'what had worked before'. Knowledge was retained by guilds and seldom supplanted by advances. Structures were repetitive, and increases in scale were incremental.[4] No record exists of the first calculations of the strength of structural members or the behavior of structural material, but the profession of structural engineer only really took shape with the Industrial Revolution and the re-invention of concrete (see History of Concrete). The physical sciences underlying structural engineering began to be understood in theRenaissance and have since developed into computer-based applications pioneered in the 1970s.[7]

Timeline[edit]

14521519 Leonardo da Vinci made many contributions 1638: Galileo Galilei published the book "Two New Sciences" in which he examined the failure of simple structures

Galileo Galilei published the book "Two New Sciences" in which he examined the failure of simple structures

1660: Hooke's law by Robert Hooke 1687: Isaac Newton published "Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica" which contains the Newton's laws of motion

Isaac Newton published "Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica" which contains theNewton's laws of motion

1750: EulerBernoulli beam equation 17001782: Daniel Bernoulli introduced the principle of virtual work 17071783: Leonhard Euler developed the theory of buckling of columns

Leonhard Euler developed the theory of buckling of columns

1826: Claude-Louis Navier published a treatise on the elastic behaviors of structures 1873: Carlo Alberto Castigliano presented his dissertation "Intorno ai sistemi elastici", which contains his theorem for computing displacement as partial derivative of the strain energy. This theorem includes the method of least work as a special case

1874: Otto Mohr formalized the idea of a statically indeterminate structure. 1922: Timoshenko corrects the Euler-Bernoulli beam equation 1936: Hardy Cross' publication of the moment distribution method which was later recognized as a form of the relaxation method applicable to the problem of flow in pipe-network

1941: Alexander Hrennikoff submitted his D.Sc thesis in MIT on the discretization of plane elasticity problems using a lattice framework

1942: R. Courant divided a domain into finite subregions 1956: J. Turner, R. W. Clough, H. C. Martin, and L. J. Topp's paper on the "Stiffness and Deflection of Complex Structures" introduces the name "finite-element method" and is widely recognized as the first comprehensive treatment of the method as it is known today

Structural failure[edit]
Main articles: Structural failure and List of structural failures and collapses The history of structural engineering contains many collapses and failures. Sometimes this is due to obvious negligence, as in the case of thePtionville school collapse, in which Rev. Fortin Augustin said that "he constructed the building all by himself, saying he didn't need an engineer as he had good knowledge of construction" following a partial collapse of the three-story schoolhouse that sent neighbors fleeing. The final collapse killed 94 people, mostly children.

In other cases structural failures require careful study, and the results of these inquiries have resulted in improved practices and greater understanding of the science of structural engineering. Some such studies are the result of forensic engineering investigations where the original engineer seems to have done everything in accordance with the state of the profession and acceptable practice yet a failure still eventuated. A famous case of structural knowledge and practice being advanced in this manner can be found in a series of failures involvingbox girders which collapsed in Australia during the 1970s.

Specializations[edit]
Building structures[edit]
See also: Building engineering

Sydney Opera House, designed byOve Arup & Partners, with the architectJrn Utzon

Millennium Dome in London, UK, byBuro Happold and Richard Rogers

Burj Khalifa, in Dubai, the world's tallest building, shown under construction in 2007 (since completed)

Structural building engineering includes all structural engineering related to the design of buildings. It is the branch of structural engineering that is close to architecture. Structural building engineering is primarily driven by the creative manipulation of materials and forms and the underlying mathematical and scientific ideas to achieve an end which fulfills its functional requirements and is structurally safe when subjected to all the loads it could reasonably be expected to experience. This is subtly different from architectural design, which is driven by the creative manipulation of materials and forms, mass, space, volume, texture and light to achieve an end which is aesthetic, functional and often artistic. The architect is usually the lead designer on buildings, with a structural engineer employed as a subconsultant. The degree to which each discipline actually leads the design depends heavily on the type of structure. Many structures are structurally simple and led by architecture, such as multistorey office buildings and housing, while other structures, such as tensile structures, shells and gridshells are heavily dependent on their form for their strength, and the engineer may have a more significant influence on the form, and hence much of the aesthetic, than the architect. The structural design for a building must ensure that the building is able to stand up safely, able to function without excessive deflections or movements which may cause fatigue of structural elements, cracking or failure of fixtures, fittings or partitions, or discomfort for occupants. It must

account for movements and forces due to temperature, creep, cracking and imposed loads. It must also ensure that the design is practically buildable within acceptable manufacturing tolerances of the materials. It must allow the architecture to work, and the building services to fit within the building and function (air conditioning, ventilation, smoke extract, electrics, lighting etc.). The structural design of a modern building can be extremely complex, and often requires a large team to complete. Structural engineering specialties for buildings include:

Earthquake engineering Faade engineering Fire engineering Roof engineering Tower engineering Wind engineering

Earthquake engineering structures[edit]

Main article: Earthquake engineering structures Earthquake engineering structures are those engineered to withstand earthquakes.

Earthquake-proof pyramid El Castillo, Chichen Itza

The main objectives of earthquake engineering are to understand the interaction of structures with the shaking ground, foresee the consequences of possible earthquakes, and design and construct the structures to perform during an earthquake.

Snapshot from shake-table video[1] of testing base-isolated (right) and regular (left) building model

Earthquake-proof structures are not necessarily extremely strong like the El Castillo pyramid at Chichen Itza shown above. In fact, many structures considered strong may in fact be stiff, which can result in poor seismic performance. One important tool of earthquake engineering is base isolation, which allows the base of a structure to move freely with the ground.

Civil engineering structures[edit]

Civil structural engineering includes all structural engineering related to the built environment. It includes:

Bridges Dams Earthworks Foundations Offshore structures Pipelines

Power stations Railways Retaining structures and walls

Roads Tunnels Waterways Water and wastewater infrastructure

The structural engineer is the lead designer on these structures, and often the sole designer. In the design of structures such as these, structural safety is of paramount importance (in the UK, designs for dams, nuclear power stations and bridges must be signed off by achartered engineer). Civil engineering structures are often subjected to very extreme forces, such as large variations in temperature, dynamic loads such as waves or traffic, or high pressures from water or compressed

gases. They are also often constructed in corrosive environments, such as at sea, in industrial facilities or below ground.

Mechanical structures[edit]

Mechanical Structures

Principles of structural engineering are applied to variety of mechanical (moveable) structures. The design of static structures assumes they always have the same geometry (in fact, so-called static structures can move significantly, and structural engineering design must take this into account where necessary), but the design of moveable or moving structures must account for fatigue, variation in the method in which load is resisted and significant deflections of structures. The forces which parts of a machine are subjected to can vary significantly, and can do so at a great rate. The forces which a boat or aircraft are subjected to vary enormously and will do so thousands of times over the structure's lifetime. The structural design must ensure that such structures are able to endure such loading for their entire design life without failing. These works can require mechanical structural engineering:

Boilers and pressure vessels Coachworks and carriages Cranes Elevators

Escalators Marine vessels and hulls