Reinforced Concrete Design Lecture

Reinforced Concrete Design is one of the major design subjects in Civil Engineering. There are many textbooks available out there. But students learned more by solving different problems for a subject included in the board examination. The problem with referring to many textbooks is it gives many formulas to be able to solve a certain type of problem.

As instructor, I choose to refer to books on problem and show the students that we can solve the problem in an alternative approach using the formulas based on core principles. One of which is the stress strain diagram. Using the theory of stress strain diagram, one can derive formula for balanced steel ratio and distance to neutral axis. In this method, I believe student can appreciate more the derivation of formulas rather than memorizing the formulas to pass the subject.

First topic in concrete design is Singly reinforced design. Here, I emphasized that the stress strain diagram is so important that this can be used also in finding the actual stresses of steel in columns. in that way, student will better appreciate the diagram because they now have the hint that this is reused in the chapters ahead and understanding that will better equip them for concrete column analysis.

The Universe in a 1 Inch Length Formula

We all wanted symmetry. Human crave for it. And our everyday decision making pursue symmetry and balance. It turns out that nature is also following this principle. Imagine this, according to the video below, universe from the theoretical physicists viewpoint can be idealized in a string field theory which allows symmetry. String field theory assumes that beyond or smaller than atoms, there are strings vibrating.

Einstein has theory of relativity which is violating the classical physics three dimensional viewpoint. It considered space-time dimension which the classical physics ignore.

However, in the string field theory, its a more upgraded theory of einstein which may even include 11 dimensions.

Whats more interesting here is that Michio Kaku claims that he can represent this whole theory in a 1 inch size of formula. Because of symmetry.

Civil engineering formulas especially stiffness matrix formulas are actually simplified in the same manner. Because we followed law of symmetry. Because matrix are collection of numbers arranged in rows and columns. In order to efficiently simulate a structure, the Global Stiffness Matrix of your structure should be symmetric.

Writing Things Down To Remember Formulas

There is no better way to remember formulas than to writing them down first. As engineering student reviewing for board examination and quizzes, we are obliged to write things down first prior to solving them or memorizing them. Writing down keeps you focused on the problem at hand. Derivation of formula is not possible without writing them first. This article validates this idea.

To master the concepts of civil engineering in the board examination, you need to make an outline of the subjects by writing them and relate them to other subjects to reinforce what you read. For example, Surveying problems and formulas can be derived using principles of geometry. If you have good grasp of geometry principles especially sine law and cosine law, you can easily derive this surveying formulas through writing down the applicable concepts and formulas.

Also, in reinforced concrete design. You can ignore other formulas in singly reinforced design if you can derive the balanced steel ratio formula using stress strain diagram. Again, you cant do that without writing down the diagram and using similar triangle. That will save you time memorizing other formulas in civil engineering exams.

Effects of the Unchartered Faults on the NSCP 2010

This paper is by Carlos Villaraza from ASEP. It was presented after the Bohol Earthquake when a new faultline is discovered. Lots of people are questioning the structural code specifically the seismic provision. However, this paper states that dividing the entire Philippines in two seismic zones rather than adopting a spectral map similar to USA, is justifiable and will take care of the uncertainties in unchartered faults.

To appreciate this paper, one must be knowledgeable with response spectra and basic earthquake engineering. Basically, every structural designer will refer to Seismic map in NSCP to get the seismic force value that a structure will be subjected into. The distance of the structure location to the nearest faultine is very important so that a specific value of seismic coefficient will be determined prior to getting seismic base shear. A problem is faced when an unidentified faultine is near the structure. However, the response spectra analysis shown by Villaraza will show that unchartered fault like in Bohol will not be much significant, by NSCP though this was not shown in the map.

Download here the paper.

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