STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING
Etymology
 STRUCTURAL – structus (L.) – to pile, build,
assemble
Definition
 a field of engineering dealing with the design of
structures that support or resist loads.
 usually considered a specialty within civil
engineering, but it can also be studied in its own
right.
 Structural engineering theory – based upon
physical laws and empirical knowledge of the
structural performance of different geometries and
materials.
 Structural engineering design – utilizes a
relatively small number of basic structural elements
to build up structural systems that can be very
complete.
Specializations
What does a structural engineer do?
 most commonly involved in the design of buildings
and large non-building structures but 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.
 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).
 Entry-level structural engineers – may design the
individual structural elements of a structure.
 often specialize in particular fields, such as bridge
engineering, building engineering, pipeline
engineering, industrial structures, or special
structures such as a vehicle or aircraft.
History
 dates to at least 270 B.C.E.
 Imhotep – built the step pyramid for Pharaoh
Djoser
- First engineer in history known by
name
 Pyramids – most common major structures built by
ancient civilizations
- inherently stable and can almost
be infinitely scaled.
 Throughout ancient and medieval history, most
architectural design and construction was carried
out by artisans, such as stone masons and
carpenters, rising to the role of master builder.
 No theory of structures existed and understanding
of how structures stoop 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.
 The profession of structural engineer only really
took shape with the industrial revolution and re-
invention of concrete.
 The physical sciences underlying structural
engineering began to be understood in the
Renaissance and have been developing ever
since.
Building structures
 Structural building engineering – branch
of structural engineering that is close to
architecture.
 must ensure that the building is able to
stand up safely, able to function without
excessive ejaculations or movements
which may cause fatigue of structural
elements, cracking or failure of fixtures,
fittings or partitions, or discomfort for
occupants.
 must account for movements and forces
due to temperature, creep, cracking, and
imposed loads.
 must also ensure that the design is
practically buildable within acceptable
within manufacturing tolerances of the
materials.
 must allow the architecture to work, and
the building services to fit within the
building and functions (air conditioning,
ventilation, smoke extract, electrics,
lighting, and so on)
 The structural design of a modern building
can be extremely complex, and often
requires a large team to complete.
STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING
Structural engineer specialties for buildings include:
 Earthquake engineering
o Earthquake engineering structures
- engineered to withstand various types
of hazardous earthquake exposures at the
sites of their particular location
o Main objectives:
- Snapshot of shake-table testing of
base-isolated (right) and a regular
(left) building model.
- Understand interaction of structures
with the shaky ground.
- Foresee the consequences of possible
earthquakes.
- Design, construct, and maintain
structures to perform at earthquake
exposure up to expectations and in
compliance with building codes.
o Skl ko lang, UST Main Building/Roque
Ruaño O.P. is the first earthquake
resistant building in the Philippines. It was
designed by Fr. Roque Ruaño. May
museum dito, date tayo if u want hehe :>
 Façade engineering
 Fire engineering
 Roof engineering
 Tower engineering
 Wind engineering
Structural elements
Columns
 elements that carry only axial force either
tension or compression or both axial force
and bending (which is technically called a
beam-column but practically, just a
column)
 design must check the axial capacity of the
element, and the buckling capacity.
Catenaries
 derive their strength from their form and
carry transverse force in pure tension by
deflecting.
 almost always cable or fabric structures
Beams
 elements which carry pure bending only.
 Bending causes one section of a beam
(divided along its length) to go into
compression then the other section into
tension.
- The compression section must be
designed to resist buckling and
crushing, while the tension section
must be able to adequately resist
tension.
Struts and ties
 Truss – a structure comprising two types
of structural element, struts and ties.
 Strut – relatively lightweight column
 Tie – slender element designed to
withstand forces.
Plates
 carry bending in two directions.
 understood by continuum mechanics, but
due to the complexity involved, they are
most often designed using a codified
empirical approach, or computer analysis.
 Ex.: concrete flat slab
Shells
 derive their strength from their form, and,
carry forces in compression in two
directions.
 can be designed by making a hanging-
chain model, which will act as a catenary
in pure tension, and inverting the form to
achieve pure compression.
 Ex.: dome
Arches
 carry forces in compression in one
direction only, which is why it is
appropriate to build arches out of masonry.
 designed by ensuring that the line of thrust
of the force remains within the depth of the
arch.
STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING
Structural engineering theory the structural material to resist the load without
breaking, or when the strain is so great that the
 depends upon a detailed knowledge of loads, element no longer fulfills its function.
physics, and materials to understand and predict
how structures support and resist self-weight and Stiffness
imposed loads
 depends upon the material properties and
 To apply knowledge successfully, a structural
geometry
engineer will need a detailed knowledge of
 stiffness of a structural element of a given material
mathematics and of relevant empirical and
is the product of the material’s Young’s modulus
theoretical design codes.
and the element’s second moment of area and is
 The criteria which govern the design of a structure
equivalent to the ‘force constant’ in Hooke’s Law.
are either serviceability or strength.
 dependent to stiffness – deflection of a structure;
 A structural engineer designs a structure to have a
dynamic response if a structure to dynamic loads.
sufficient strength and stiffness to meet these
 A structure is considered to fail the chosen
criteria.
serviceability criteria if it is insufficiently stiff to have
 Loads imposed on structures are supported by
acceptably small deflection or dynamic response
means of forces transmitted through structural
under loading.
elements. These forces can manifest themselves
 flexibility – inverse of stiffness
as:
 Tension (axial force) Safety factors
 Compression (axial force)
 Shear  The safe design of structures requires a design
 Bending or flexure approach which takes account of a statistical
likelihood of the failure of the structure. Structural
Loads design codes are based upon the assumption that
both the loads and the material strengths vary a
 can be classified as live (imposed) loads, dead
normal distribution.
loads, earthquake (seismic) loads, wind loads, soil
pressure loads, fluid pressure loads. Impact loads,  The job of the structural engineer is to ensure that
and vibratory loads. the chance of overlap between the distribution of
loads on a structure and the distribution of material
 Live loads – transitionary or temporary loads and
strength of a structure is acceptably small.
relatively unpredictable in magnitude.
 The safety factors for material strength vary
 may include the weight of a building’s occupants
depending on the material and the use it is being
and furniture, and temporary loads the structure is
put to and on the design codes applicable in the
subjects to during construction.
country or region.
 Dead loads – permanent; may include the weight of
the structure itself and all major permanent
components.: may include the weight of a structure
in a way it would not normally be supported, for
example during construction.
Strength

 depends upon material properties.

 strength of a material - depends on its capacity to
withstand axial stress, shear stress, bending,
torsion.
- measured in force per
unit in area.
 structure fails the strength criterion when the stress
induced by loading is greater than the capacity of