Comment

Finding a Balance

There are a couple of good structural engineering articles in this newsletter – one looking at Tekla’s latest application – Structural Designer, which combines structural analysis with steel detailing in the release of Structural Designer, combining the best of both technologies to form a total structural design solution – the clue is in the name - and Oasys describing the use of GSA’s structural analysis to calculate stresses in thin lightweight structures – geometrically non-linear structures, which, lacking the linear stiffness of beams, rely on tension and compression to provide their strength.

Both are exciting in different ways, Tekla’s Structural Designer giving more creative power to the structural engineer’s elbow, instead of being subservient to the need to make an architects projects structurally viable, and Oasys’ GSA because it panders to my love for the balance you have to find between strength and lightness – the aim of building a bridge, for instance, that soars with minimum weight of material yet is strong enough to carry its loads. The structure of the form is critical – get the form right and the structure can span huge distances with minimal material.

It reminds me of some of the things we use to experiment with at school – maths or science class, can’t remember which - where we were given the task of designing maximum structures using just drinking straws. Some of the results were quite impressive. Wonder if the creators went on to become structural engineers?

David Chadwick

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