10/22/12: Foundation Engineering

At my mentorship with Bowman Engineering, Inc., I'm learning the fundamentals and even some details of structural engineering. Bowman mostly works with foundation plans, which are CAD drawings drawn as if you were one inch above a floor looking down. This way, you can see what is supporting you, better known as your foundation.

I'm learning about rebar standards (rebar is used to help concrete structures maintain their shape and strength), standard sizes for I-beams, standards for steel railing, and much more. In my most recent project, I designed the foundation plan for a water tank at SAPA in Gainesville. The structure is made up of a foundation in the ground, a water tank, a floor above the water tank that is supported by four beams on its four corners, and a water tank on top of the floor. This requires us to look at soil conditions, the loads we expect the structure to carry (weight of the tanks when filled with water), and how we expect the structure to perform.

The same happens for all structures, and those three criteria are the most important part to anything staying up. I read an article published on A-1 Engineering's website about foundation design. Here is my synopsis:

Foundation Engineering
In order to create a building, a foundation is required. To build a foundation, important data must be acquired. A geotechnical engineer will perform soil tests on a site to determine the type of soil present. The structural engineer in charge of the project will then review International Residential Codes and International Building Codes to determine the types of footings, slabs, and beams used in the project. The Codes contain lists of available books and resources that not only tell how to build the structure, but also acceptable standards for its construction. This is done to ensure that the structure does not collapse.

Soil
Structural engineers need to know the type of soil they are building on in order to avoid catastrophes. For example, building on fertile soil such as in the Midwest requires larger foundations so that water can't get inside buildings. Engineers building on the red clay of North Georgia have to consider the thickness of the clay to avoid a heavy load resting on a layer of limestone. Acid rain causes sinkholes because it dissolves the limestone, so if limestone must be built on, a load-bearing support does not need to be there.

Loads
After determining that the soil is good for building, a structural engineer must determine to what degree something can be built. For example, a building that needs 2,500 pounds per square foot (psf) of support shouldn't be built on top of limestone or thin clay, but a building that only has to support 500 psf can be built on nearly anything. The psf requirement is calculated by adding the weight of all of the walls, the floors, the roof, and the maximum weight of potential furniture and people. That number is multiplied by 25, then divided by 2. The final number tells the requirement for how many pounds per square foot that the soil can support.

Performance
Plain and simple, if a structure is going to be frequently used (like an apartment complex), then the support structures will need to be strong overall. For something like a house, then normal-strength 2x4 boards are strong enough. And for something like a shed (where equipment sits in the same place for extended periods of time), the support below those objects will need to be stronger, and the rest of the shed doesn't have to be strong at all.

Overall
In conclusion, soil, expected loads, and building performance are the three major parts to determining how a building is created, and if International Codes are followed, the building will be a great structure for many years.

Source
A-1 Engineering. "Foundation Engineering Design." A-1engineering.com. A-1 Engineering, n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2012. <http://www.a-1engineering.com/foundationengineering.htm>.

Inspiration to Keep Going

Our assignment for this week is to review a TED Talk and give our opinion on it. I'll preface this with a link to the talk.

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/sir_ken_robinson_bring_on_the_revolution.html

Following are the questions:

1.  What would you pursue or study if you had unlimited time and resources?
2.  Which has more influence, Aptitude or Attitude, and Why?
3.  Do you think that our current grading system needs to be abolished? What alternative do you recommend?
4.  Some of the HMP class goals are: to help students develop time management skills, foster a sense of independence and accountability, and real life problem solving. This class requires a lot of student motivation since you are not meeting with a teacher on a daily basis. What areas of improvement or areas of personal growth has this class brought to your attention (time management, procrastination, self advocacy, computer skills, writing or communicating deficits, etc.)?

And my answers:

1. If I had unlimited time and resources, I would study and participate in railroad operations to no end.

2. Attitude has a larger influence in how we live our lives because just "getting by" doesn't cut it. Our abilities may be strong, but if we hate what we do, then why do it? Here is a particular example; I want to live beside the train tracks, and a woman in Tyrone, Pennsylvania wants to live away from the train tracks. While we are both surviving where we are, we both want to be in each other's place. So why not trade? My attitude is that I want to live by trains, where I will be happy; and hers is that she wants to live away from trains, where she will be happy. If we were to trade places, we would not just survive, but we would thrive.

3. Our grading system doesn't need to be abolished, but it does need modification. Of course, there will always be exceptions. Honors Mentorship (HMP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) students are going to naturally seek out scholarships and apply to colleges; however, students in regular-ed classes are much more likely to need prodding to go to college.
In school, those of us in HMP and IB push ourselves to succeed at a higher level than others. We are in IB Economics or are mentoring at a structural engineering firm for no pay because we want to. I want to work in a rail company's upper management, which requires college. I want to go to a college where I can make the most of my three or four years. That takes money, and I don't have money. Doing IB and extracurricular activities like HMP, Beta Club, National Honors Society, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, etc., will put me ahead of the rest of the applicants, so I will hopefully get the scholarships to pay for my future.
So, I want my school to be graded in a manner that doesn't matter whether I pass, but in a matter that determines whether or not I am wasting my time in the particular way I want to put myself ahead.

4. Just filling up five extra hours per week in my mentorship has crammed the amount of time I have to do my schoolwork, take care of myself (sleep), and work on my future and hobbies. At my mentorship, I work on a computer doing Computer-Aided-Drafting (CAD) to make official drawings for construction projects. The terminology between me and my mentor must be the same to make sense out of a "red arrow with a line through it" on a sketch-up I am putting into CAD.

So many struggles have come out, and I really don't like my mentorship. In fact, I dread it; however, this TED talk has reminded me that I am doing Honors Mentorship to reach the exact future I want--to make the most of my life. That is what keeps me going.

Thanks for reading!

Post-Secondary Time

Beginning October, a pretty big (but important) assignment was dropped on us. The theme is colleges, degrees, and everything else about what we want to do. So, here are the questions we've been asked to answer:

1. List 3 colleges you would apply for with the degree program you will need to enter the field you are studying in HMP. Please provide the college's name, location, and link to their website.

2. What will be your criteria for a quality program of study?

3. Which universities would have the criteria you came up with?

4. Is there additional entrance requirements for your field of study?

5. What is your criteria for a "quality" ranking and educational program (size, location, sports, diversity, funding)?

6. What is the ranking for this program nation wide and what criteria is used to determine that ranking?

7. What professional and honors associations are related to your field of study?

8. List 3-4 potential scholarships for which you are eligible and can apply for.

Here goes!

1. I would apply to Purdue University, Vanderbilt University, and Georgia Tech for Civil Engineering.

    -Purdue: West Lafayette, IN: http://www.purdue.edu/

    -Vanderbilt: Nashville, TN: http://www.vanderbilt.edu/
    -Georgia Tech: Atlanta, GA: http://www.gatech.edu/
2. As far as the quality of the program of study goes, I want to study at an accredited university with a well-proven success rate (proven by graduates and their accomplishments).
3. All three have the criteria!

4. No additional courses or activities are required to enter the Civil Engineering field of study.

5. A quality educational program is at a large, well-known school, in a well-known area, that is good at sports, has a good mix of diversity, and gets lots of charter funding.

6. I'll get back to you on that...
7. Same as above...

8. Still working through this with my parents. We need scholarships...

The Mentorship

I got it! - Being such big news, I think it's important to let you all know that I got a mentorship.

I am working with a structural engineering firm in Oakwood, GA. I know the owner, Mr. Bowman, through church. His firm, Bowman Engineering, does structural engineering. What's that mean? That means that they use Autodesk AutoCAD to create structural drawings of concrete footers, support systems, and foundations in and around new structures.

It's been a long and grueling search, and my possibilities have changed time and time again. Luckily, I can put my engineering skills to work and get some experience for my future.