Civil Engineer Expert

Why Did Cowboys Facility Collapse?

A fabric-covered, steel frame practice facility owned by the National Football League’s Dallas Cowboys collapsed under wind loads significantly less than those required under applicable design standards, according to a report released on October 6 for public comment by the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Located in Irving, Texas, the facility collapsed on May 2, 2009, during a severe thunderstorm. Twelve people were injured, one seriously.

Based on the national standards for determining loads and for designing structural steel buildings, NIST researchers studying the Cowboys facility found that the May 2 wind load demands on the building’s framework—a series of identical, rib-like steel frames supporting a tensioned fabric covering—were greater than the capacity of the frame to resist those loads.

Assumptions and approaches used in the design of the Cowboys facility led to the differences between the values originally calculated for the wind load demand and structural frame capacity compared to those derived by the NIST researchers. For instance, the NIST researchers included internal wind pressure due to the presence of vents and multiple doors in their wind load calculations because they classified the building as “partially enclosed” rather than “fully enclosed” as stated in the design documents. The NIST researchers also determined that the building’s fabric could not be relied upon to provide lateral bracing (additional perpendicular support) to the frames in contrast to what was stated in the design documents and that the expected wind resistance of the structure did not account for bending effects in some members of the frame.

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Shell structure is able to adapt to changing environmental conditions.

Weather conditions such as wind and snow loads can cause failure and collapse of supporting structures in roofs and similar constructions. Based on new hybrid intelligent construction elements (HICE), researchers at the University of Stuttgart have developed a shell structure which is able to adapt to changing environmental conditions. In a further step, the scientists will now use their knowledge to develop machines from these new structural elements which will also be able to react to their environments and adapt to given conditions.

According to experts, this development may eventually lead to a significant acceleration of entire construction processes in mechanical, electrical and control engineering.

A research group of six engineers from different fields such as civil, aerospace, mechanical and process engineering is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation) with a grant of 1.858 m € assigned for the first three years of a six-year project. The research group has started to operate in June.

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New Way To Monitor Faults May Help Predict Earthquakes

Scientists at the Carnegie Institution have found a way to monitor the strength of geologic faults deep in the Earth. This finding could prove to be a boon for earthquake prediction by pinpointing those faults that are likely to fail and produce earthquakes. Until now, scientists had no method for detecting changes in fault strength, which is not measureable at the Earth’s surface.

Paul Silver* and Taka’aki Taira of the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, with Fenglin Niu of Rice University and Robert Nadeau of the University of California, Berkeley, used highly sensitive seismometers to detect subtle changes in earthquake waves that travel through the San Andreas Fault zone near Parkfield, California, over a period of 20 years. The changes in the waves indicate weakening of the fault and correspond to periods of increased rates of small earthquakes along the fault.

“Fault strength is a fundamental property of seismic zones,” says Taira, now at the University of California, Berkeley. “Earthquakes are caused when a fault fails, either because of the build-up of stress or because of a weakening of the fault. Changes in fault strength are much harder to measure than changes in stress, especially for faults deep in the crust. Our result opens up exciting possibilities for monitoring seismic risk and understanding the causes of earthquakes.”

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Abstract

Risk Management and Control

Any large scale projects involve certain risks and that is true of software projects. Risk management is an emerging area that aims to address the problem of identifying and managing the risks associated with the software projects.

The basic motivation of having risk management is to avoid disasters of heavy losses. The current interest in risk management is due to the fact that the history of software development projects is full of major and minor failures. A large percentage of projects have run considerably over budget and behind schedule, and many of them have been abandoned midway. It is now argued that many of these failures were due to the fact that the risks were not identified and managed properly.

Risk management is an important area, particularly for large projects. Like any management activity, proper planning of that activity is central to success.

Risk Management Overview

Risk is defined as an exposure to the chance of injury or loss. That is, risk implies that there is a possibility that something negative may happen. In the context of software projects, negative implies that there is an adverse effect on cost, quality, or schedule. Risk management is the area that tries to ensure that the impact of risks on cost, quality, and schedule is minimal.

Like configuration management which minimizes the impact of change, risk management minimizes the impact of risks.

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How to Manage Complex Project?

Complexity of the any project can be reduced by making clear project plan and visualization of the project. To manage the complex project you can make it visual. The more visual you can make the project, and the process of achieving the targets, the more likely it is that each task will be completed on schedule and to the standards you have set. You manage the project by measuring people’s progress toward their individual targets.

The law is “Inspect what you expect from the project.” Never take for granted anything. Remember, Murphy’s Laws were developed by people managing projects of various sizes. You should keep in your mind some of these laws – “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong”, “However much you budget it will cost more than you expect”, “However long you allow it will take longer than you thought”. Eradicate all the things that can go wrong, the worst possible thing will go wrong at the worst possible time. And, of course, you’ve heard the consequence to Murphy’s Laws.

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What Is Civil Engineering All About?

A Career In Civil Engineering

Civil engineering deals with a variety of construction and maintenance tasks, like building and maintaining roads, bridges, tunnels, buildings, airports, dams, water works, sewage systems and ports. A civil engineer not only requires a high standard of engineering knowledge, but also supervisory and administrative skills. The work involves planning, constructing and maintaining.

The planning and designing part demands site investigation, resource feasibility study and on-the-spot decision making. An engineer has to be quick to make a decision because emergencies do come up and need to be dealt with then and there. Other important duties of an engineer involve taking care of work within the local government guidelines and getting permission for plans, creating a cost estimate and construction schedules and post-completion maintenance of the project.

There are many specialized branches of civil engineering such as dealing with structures, water resources, environment, construction, transportation and geo-technical engineering. For most projects, civil engineers work in teams or sometimes even in coordination with other engineers.

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Graduate Civil Engineering Careers - Building City Streets

The field of civil engineering is becoming more competitive as city and national governments look for innovative civil designs. Civil engineers are needed for local government agencies that need to develop sewerage systems that coexist with electrical, water, and transportation systems. National government agencies in the United Kingdom and Europe need excellent civil engineers to create innovative public buildings, roadway designs, and public transportation systems. The civil engineering field has become more design oriented, with public figures and leaders demanding a combination of form and function in even the drabbest public building.

Graduates with civil engineering specialties need to consider the skill set that is needed for success in the industry. Civil engineers typically need to specialise early in their careers in order to focus their attention and become successful in one aspect of the industry. Graduates have a variety of specialties to choose from, including hydraulic, structural, and transportation engineering. Once specialisation is established, graduates need to demonstrate their creative and technical abilities in the workplace. Civil engineers need to be able to think of creative designs of typically mundane public structures like processing plants and warehouses. Creativity needs to be mixed with exceptional technical skills in order to create buildings and structures that will last a long time.

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