Anyone know a civil engineer?

[joshtaylor87]

G'day guys, is anyone on here a Civil Engineer or do any of you know one you could put me in contact with? I have a question or two about understanding a couple of formulas. (I'm in no way an Engineer myself but need to do some engineering calculations so need to speak to someone that knows the formulas)


Cheers

[jules]

i'm a mech engineer. happy to take a punt at the formulas if you like.

[joshtaylor87]

Ok Jules that would be great if you could. I don't actually have the formula, I was hoping someone would be able to help me out with that.

I need to be able to calculate the theoretical wind load serviceability and ultimate values of a vertical mullion in a Sliding Window/Curtain Wall. I have the formula for the serviceability just need one for the ultimate.

If you could help that would be awesome!

[jules]

jebus.. i thought maybe you were going to ask an easy one.

i wouldn't know what the formula was. you'll probably find it in the Australian Standards though. (for a fee) or google it.

i am pretty good with working out formulas though, if you need a hand, once you've found it.

[cxcxcxvcvcvc]

Hey mate can i ask, are you building a wall out of glass or something? Im not an engineer ect but if im assuming right wouldnt the theoretical wind load be different as to what outward wind pressure is facing the door/window? probably have no idea what im talking about just taking a punt

[joshtaylor87]

jebus.. i thought maybe you were going to ask an easy one.

i wouldn't know what the formula was. you'll probably find it in the Australian Standards though. (for a fee) or google it.

i am pretty good with working out formulas though, if you need a hand, once you've found it.

Ok cheers, I will have a look at that site you gave me to see if I can find anything on there, as I have spent hours googling just about anything that has to do with this and can not find the formula. I will let you know how I get on.

Thanks

Hey mate can i ask, are you building a wall out of glass or something? Im not an engineer ect but if im assuming right wouldnt the theoretical wind load be different as to what outward wind pressure is facing the door/window? probably have no idea what im talking about just taking a punt

G'day mate, I don't know a great deal about this myself but what I sort of know is when a window/door/curtainwall is specified it has to meet a certain serviceability and ultimate rating. This initial rating is calculated by the engineer that designs the building and with this he takes into consideration the history of the area the building is going up in eg does it regularly get hit by cyclones etc. So when the window fabricator is given the job of building the windows etc for this building he is told that the window must meet x amount of serviceability and x amount of ultimate by the engineer. I don't need to know any of these formulas for the process just mentioned. This next part is what I need to work out...What serviceability/ultimate our windows will theoretically rate to using the strength values of our aluminium mullions etc. IE if our standard mullion doesn't meet the serviceability/ultimate values we would need to use our heavy duty mullion etc.

[jules]

if that's where you're looking, i deal a lot with Australian Standards (although again, i'm not a civil eng, so not the ones you're interested in). it's usually hard to tell what's included in them, without paying good money and finding out it's the wrong one, etc.

so my tip if you're keen is that you can head off to your local uni library which should have them on catalogue - for free access.

[joshtaylor87]

Oh ok, thanks for the tips Jules. I have found a website/forum called Engineers Edge so i've registered on that and posted my question on there, if nothing comes of that it looks like i'm off to the local Uni Library.

Thanks again Jules

[Philthy]

I have a few mates studying civil eng. I will ask them tomorrow for you

[joshtaylor87]

That would be awesome Philthy, thanks for that. Even if you could ask them if they would mind you giving me their email address. So I can contact them and explain myself a bit better.

[Philthy]

This is the answer I got:

Scav says:
the difference between serviceabilty and ultimate winds is the speed used.off the top of my head serviceability is highest wind in a 20 year period and ultimate is highest wind in a 1000 period, this being the higest wind that would occur in the period of time, ultimate being obviously larger, these values vary from loaction to loaction as well.
Scav says:
the Vr, is the denotation of the speed in the formula
Scav says:
vr shoiuld be the only changed variable in the two eqns

If that doesn't answer the question let me know and I will PM you his email

[joshtaylor87]

Thanks a lot for your help Philthy, I really appreciate it. However this doesn't really clear it up for me as I don't actually have a formula with this "Vr" in it. So not to sure what this means. It would be great if you could give me your friends email address that way I can email him the spreadsheet of what I have done so far. So long as he doesn't mind.


Thanks again

[Philthy]

Pm sent, hope it helps clear things up for you

[vxcalais_01]

Sorry Josh, i am a CE, but been couple years now since i did those things and i only really know about roads and bridges these days. Structural Engineer is what you are after for those things. I think those things would be in a standard table or chart, like BHP steel guide etc. Should be easy to find on here, go to One Steel or Lysaght and go through there guides etc. There may be a universal one, as designers need to know their figures particular to that product to be able to use it.

[joshtaylor87]

Pm sent, hope it helps clear things up for you

Thanks very much for that Phil, much appreciated.

Sorry Josh, i am a CE, but been couple years now since i did those things and i only really know about roads and bridges these days. Structural Engineer is what you are after for those things. I think those things would be in a standard table or chart, like BHP steel guide etc. Should be easy to find on here, go to One Steel or Lysaght and go through there guides etc. There may be a universal one, as designers need to know their figures particular to that product to be able to use it.

Oh ok, I will have a look on One Steel and Lysaght's websites. I didn't realize they had technical documents available. Thanks very much for that vxcalais. I will check it out.


Thanks again guys. Will let you know how I go.