Structures

Tips for complex analytical modelling in civil engineering

Si Shen

Jul 133 min read

Tips for complex analytical modelling in civil engineering

This blogpost shares a few tips about modelling from personal experience

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Si Shen

Mar 13, 20232 min read

Creep, stress relaxation and shrinkage

Creep, stress relaxation and shrinkage are different concepts but easily confused

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Si Shen

Nov 11, 20212 min read

Plain concrete - how is it different

there is a different set of design rules for plain concrete

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Si Shen

Oct 11, 20213 min read

How does a foundation fail

the ultimate failure of foundations is a lot more complicated to understand

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Si Shen

Sep 7, 20212 min read

Plane-stress vs. Plane-strain

“Plane-stress” and “Plane-strain” are are essentially two variations of 2D analysis, with differences in their assumptions.

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Si Shen

Jul 19, 20214 min read

How reinforced concrete degrade

The principle of durability design is to slow down the damage process sufficiently so that the reinforced concrete sustains the damage

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Plastic analysis of reinforced concrete – plastic hinge, moment-curvature and moment-stiffness

Si Shen

May 18, 20214 min read

Plastic analysis of reinforced concrete – plastic hinge, moment-curvature and moment-stiffness

Utilising plastic hinges can tap out fuller potential of the structure and achieve an economic design

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Sprayed concrete – what’s special about it?

Si Shen

May 2, 20214 min read

Sprayed concrete – what’s special about it?

This post is a study note based on various sources rather than professional advice, and may not be reflective of the most up-to-date...

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Si Shen

Mar 25, 20213 min read

Concrete behaviour in tension (1)

Taking concrete as linear-elastic in both compression and tension is like treating it as metal and can lead to over-dosage of reinforcement.

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Top 5 unique challenges of designing underground structures

Si Shen

Mar 9, 20213 min read

Top 5 unique challenges of designing underground structures

In the underground world, being apparently accurate in the calculation process is usually meaningless.

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Si Shen

Feb 15, 20212 min read

Premortems in engineering design

the ‘premortem’ is an extremely useful management tool that can be equally applied to the way of us approaching engineering issues

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Si Shen

Jan 24, 20213 min read

Stiffness, strength and ductility

Stiffness, strength and ductility are three crucial concepts in the understanding of structural behaviour, particularly in terms of seismic

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Disadvantages of large diameter reinforcement

Si Shen

Jan 10, 20213 min read

Disadvantages of large diameter reinforcement

the designer must bear in mind the downside of large diameter reinforcement, which is explained in this blog post.

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Fire engineering for concrete structures

Si Shen

Dec 27, 20204 min read

Fire engineering for concrete structures

This blog post outlines the overall fire engineering approach and touches on some basic principles.

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Si Shen

Nov 12, 20202 min read

Selection of foundation type

Whether the small and shallow foundation gives the design a ‘pass’ or not depends mainly on two criteria: resistance and settlement.

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Construction quality control and tolerances

Si Shen

Oct 31, 20202 min read

Construction quality control and tolerances

The quality control measures put into place are essentially mitigation measures to deal with the risk of failure of compliance to the design

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What structural engineers need to know about waterproofing membrane

Si Shen

Aug 26, 20201 min read

What structural engineers need to know about waterproofing membrane

the membrane is a delicate thing and requires a lot of careful detailing and handling.

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Si Shen

Jul 27, 20202 min read

Progressive Collapse

There was a famous event for tower blocks in London. In 1968 there was a gas explosion on the 18th floor of Ronan Point, but the...

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Si Shen

Jun 30, 20202 min read

How to specify concrete cover

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Practical durability design for concrete

Si Shen

Mar 6, 20202 min read

Practical durability design for concrete

summarises how concrete deteriorate in plain language and practical measures to make it durable.

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The Si-Eng

Si's civil engineering blog
All original by Si Shen.

All posts are personal opinions only.