Copy Paste from Wordpress

I just finished copying and pasting here my blogs from Wordpress. Until now, I am contemplating on which platform to continue. Do I have to use Blogger often and ditch my wordpress blog? Though I cant decide on this yet, what matters is I pursue my blogging to document the lessons I learned throughout my career and of course on how I can apply this to my daily life journey..

Earthquake Preparedness: Engineer's Thoughts

With the recent Nepal earthquake, our national government in the Philippines through PHIVOLCS just issued again the VFS(Valley Fault System) Map for information dissemination. This time it captured lots of Filipinos awareness and became a trending topic in social media. My wife who used to ignore my stories about the fault line (me being a structural engineer) immediately threatened me after hearing the news(weird lol).

Social media suddenly became a bulletin board full of prayers for the Philippines. I hope we begin to think realistically and do not just rely too much on Faith alone. This may not be the perfect suggestions, but here are my thoughts:

1. Luckily, most high rise building in the metro are designed according to NSCP (the national structural code of the Philippines). Thus, no immediate worries of possible distraction when earthquake comes. However, some were not designed according to the latest Code which considers ductility of the frame.

2. Although these buildings may withstand extreme earthquake, the other scenario which may result due to this earthquake is what matters most:
3. Access to food, electricity and clean water will be hard because such magnitude of earthquake may divide roads and detroy electric posts and can even caused fires.
4. Our municipality in valenzuela recently launched its 3S centers in times of disasters like this. Other cities especially those lying near the valley fault system should follow the same. Again, careful planning from the urban planners usually architect and in coordination with engineers should drive this endeavour.
5. Now as individual family effort, we should at least have a week storage of food or other source of electricity in our house say a generator. Although you need to make effort storing diesel fuel for that. Basically, the way we prepared for typhoons is also the same with earthquake preparedness but for this case instead of rainfall as our enemy, it’s the destruction of our house debris falling down on us.
6. Just my thought, I have been fond of correlating earthquake occurrence with the moon rotation. Most sites said that large earthquakes occurred during full moon window. We may observe that large storm also usually occurs after a large earthquake. In short, we cant help but wander that there are external forces linked to this events.
7. Now, if you are afraid your house will be destroyed for such event, please consider consulting a structural engineer before you build house in order to ensure your house will sustain such devastating force from mother nature.

..I will think further on some preparation for this large event..

Discipline, Discipline, Discipline

As i sat down on my chair to start my day's work, I remember what I read yesterday about discipline at work. It said not to concentrate on your computer for an hour before doing any work and an hour before leaving the work in the afternoon. I guess it really is helpful. I avoided the temptation of  clicking on lots of email correspondence and internet sites which normally take our concentration away from the urgent matters to handle.

Now, going back to urgent matter. It has been a disciplined habit to write down all urgent tasks for the day and even write down previous urgent task yesterday which I was not able to performed. And guess what? It was a long list of item again!

My approach here is proven correct and tested. After writing down the lists, I will create dotted points beside those urgent items to separate the most urgent matters at hand. This easier said than done. You need to check if your urgent taks is really the urgent one. That needs coordination with your immediate boss and you should do this early in the morning as stated here.

After that, work your way on those pressing items and think with this phrase " Begin with the End in mind"..Think of the final result of this task and step by step determine how you can accomplish the task in timely manner..

I have been doing this exercise of discipline since I started working and it really helps..

Random Lessons Learnt in Construction

As we progress on construction for a project, lots of incompetency arises that were not brought into light during bid evaluation of the winning constructor. I guess, as a designer, we should check first their capacity, their pool of manpowers and their skills to verify if later on during construction they will comply to designers expectation. However, also as a designer, and we dont have the minds of the client choosing the winner, we should be well prepared to handle those challenging tasks of pleasing the client while the constructor causes delay by not following proper procedure as dictated by designer. Thats where the good Project Manager comes in.

Thankfully, I had lots of guidance from more senior engineer to handle such task prioritizing everything during construction.

For younger engineers, its really helpful to be employed in a company with established standards and will help you be more organized with decision making. For example, submittals like construction materials will require certain ASTM standards for compliance which is usually stated in the specifications. Having skills sets of knowing what to ask from the contractor and how to ask it with conviction, is really a great confidence builder as designer and checker.

Excel Addict

I saw this book titled Microsoft Excel Addict..I guess this can be a good way to start becoming a good excel user. being an engineer, you should be good at using spreadsheet like excel.

Tips on Checking Steel Structure Shopdrawing

Will be checking steel fabrication shopdrawing. Not having such experience before, I opted to ask my supervisor how it shall be done. At the back of my mind, using logic and common sense, every shopdrawings for structural must all be dependent on architectural drawings. Luckily, I was right again.

The drawings indicated T.O.S (Top of Steel) elevation. It striked me that such values in the drawing requires architectural confirmation of elevation. But how is it confirmed? I guess the thickness of roofing and also type of purlins used shall be determined. However, the construction moves where contractor proposes lots of alternatives to saves money. And this, ideally, must be captured also in the shopdrawing. But it will be too late to ask for the final drawings. Thus, a proper disclaimer I guess shall cover the designer of possible changes in the construction. Construction manager on site must inform the designer immediately of those changes.

The least that structural engineer must do in the shopdrawing is to check the sizes indicated in the shopdrawing against the approved schedule and plan. And the connection of the framing must be followed.

Fortunately, I have dual monitors used in the office. I would open the shopdrawing PDF in the other monitor while the CAD drawing of our For Construction Drawings in the other. Reviewing side by side the two drawings is easier.

For a very complicated drawing, I would print first the drawings and using highlighter, would highlight structural sizes according to their sizes using different colors. In that manner, you will have an overall view of changes of structural sizes in the drawing.

Minutes of the Meeting

As a designer coordinating with client and contractor, one should learn how to take minutes of the meeting even for personal use. But most of the time, as a representative of company you are working in, you should take down notes during meeting so that your Project Manager will learn the discussion even hes's not around.

The following tips may be useful:

1. Make sure to read the agenda of the meeting before it starts then ready yourself on all possible question the contractor or client may ask in the meeting related to the agenda.

2. since you may not be aware for all the item listed, forward the agenda to concerned discipline lead for them to answer the agenda or update you with the latest information.

3. Learn to anticipate. One agenda may affect other agenda or other issue on the project. Brainstorm in your head possible scenarios for each answer to agenda.

Design and Build In Compliance to Structural Code: Preparing for Big One Earthquake

As stated here , the current fear for the coming of BIG ONE in the metro deserves further clarification.

If your house is designed and build following the NSCP(National Structural Code of the Philippines), then you should not fear that it will be destroyed when earthquake of that magnitude comes. Take note of the word design and build. Design is made by Architect and Engineer while Build is handed over to Contractor "building" the design made by the architects and structural engineer. These two words are necessary to claim that your house is fully compliant to code.

With due respect to some contractor, there are instances wherein although the house is designed according to code, non compliance by the contractor were committed just to save money. Thus, the client is advise to hire separate construction manager on site to assure the quality of construction is in compliant to design made by engineer who we can assumes to follow the code.

Whats happening lately is that people are looking at the map provided by PHIVOLCS and check their distance on it. For us, structural engineer, its just part of the equation. Why? In following structural code, we can design the structure whatever distance you are from the fault line. Thus, distance is really just part of the equation. What matters is the inclusion of the whole earthquake parameter in the design of the structure.

Whats alarming is that one person may be thinking seeing his house too far away from the fault line than others is already a safe reassurance. This is wrong. A house designed by structural engineer which is 10m away from the fault line is safer than a house built by non-engineers 20m away from the fault line. Thats the truth!

Finite Element Modeling in STAAD

Today's technology have propelled the advancement of computation which used to be so complicated say 20 years back. High specification computers make it easier for engineers to perform complex analysis like Finite Element Modeling.

I saw this video presenting check of steel connection using Finite element software. Luckily, for engineer used in STAAD, you can also do the same checking if you understand the theory behind the finite element and of course the in and out of the software.

I checked this sample video where an isolated footing was analyzed using manual calculation and clearly matches result with Finite element modeling. Note however to us engineers of the familiar G.I.G.O..Garbarge in garbage out..We should be checking our parameters on the model first prior to accepting the result of the software.

Link to NSCP Wind Load and Earthquake Provision Explained

Though he may not be aware of this, I would like to refer to this blog for explanation of NSCP wind loading and earthquake analysis provision.

The approach is similar to textbook where he explains with sample problems which makes it easier to understand for young engineers.

I have met Dr. Aquino in UP Diliman and I can consider him as expert on his field. So for those reading my posts, please also refer to his blog for further information.

Housing Code Vol 3 NSCP yet to release

Last week, ASEP held its 17th International Convention in Ortigas. One topic of the said event was the possible release of new volume of NSCP ( National Structural Code of the Philippines) Vol 3. This will cover the Housing Code. Philippines, being a seismic region, and a former US colony, follows UBC code and other American code which consequently impose a stringent requirement on design especially in seismic design. For a light loaded structure like simple house, designers are bound to follow the strict requirement of NSCP volume 1 based from American standards.

I dont want to sound "all-knowing' but this was the common debate among young designers. Now that the Housing Code will be released hopefully next year, it will definitely sheds lights on some gray areas the young engineers are always asking. For example, does the housing code will allow a less than 300 minimum column dimension for house? How about less than 250 mm beam dimension?

It will be recalled that the earthquake provision in NSCP states the minimum column of 300 while 250mm for beam. Lets find out once the Volume 3 is released.

Update:

When I did this blog, I am referring to a personal copy of my NSCP bought in ASEP labeled First Printing. It turned out that this is already outdated because our office copy is already in Fourth Printing.

I discovered that this version (Fourth Printing) already included the Volume 3 of NSCP specifically on section 421.6.1.1 stating.." The shortest cross sectional dimension, measured on a straight line passing through the geometric centroid, shall not be less than 300mm except for buildings or structures regulated by NSCP Volume III and BP 220."

Thus, its already stated that NSCP now allows less than 300mm column dimension. However, further provision shall be expected clarifying this when Volume III is released.

Best in Class Awardee

For the second time, I received again a Best in Class Award from my employer. It is very surprising to receive yet another award since I knew I just do what I need to do in order to accomplish our team's goal, the company goal and represent the company in front of the client.

I owe this award to my mentor who is also a Best in class awardee herself, and patiently guided me despite her busy schedule.

Earthquake in Sabah

Earlier this morning, there was an earthquake in Sabah Malaysia..which is just outside the ring of fire..I wonder what cause this big one. If Sabah is outside ring of fire, then there must be something else causing it to move. I wish this event has nothing to do with the BIG one.

This article sheds light on what causes the movement earlier.

Rainy Season in the Philippines

We have been experiencing continuous rains for the past weeks brought by typhoons like Egay and now Falcon. Clearly, this is the evidence of rainy season coming down in the Philippines. I wish we do not experience the same Yolanda or Ondoy this year.

I remember creating a report on Davao River and simulating the effects of rainfall gathered from PAGASA. This is more like Project Noah of myself. I wish to apply this knowledge on other part of Philippines..

Journey to Exam

To date, I am able to have greater overview of the subjects Im about to take this coming semester than it was last January when I started this blog. I realized its really very efficient having devoted time to study anything and to have something to look forward to at the end of the year. It really forces someone like me to understand the subject in fear of failing the examination.

There will be 3 days of exam. First day is more on Mathematics, Second day is the applied mathematics subject while the Third day is the Design subjects which focuses on Structural engineering subjects already. To date, I realize that Mathematics subjet is really required to understand and go deeper on the Applied Matheatics subjects. ON the other hand, Im bit relaxed on the DEsign part because Ive been designing for 6 years already and should not be difficult for me.

Falcon in the Metro: Its effect in La Mesa Dam

I live in northern part of Metro Manila and during this rainy season, I always need to monitor the level of dams like La Mesa in Quezon City. Today, it was reported by GMA news that its near the spilling level shown below:

This dam which is a spillway dam, has no gates I believe. That is, if its already full, the water will only have to spill over downstream creating floods in Valenzuela and Quezon City. Water is transferred in Tullahan river all the way to Manila Bay I believe. Its been a problem since I was young and yearly this always happen. I think the government should start constructing another dam somewhere downstream to further control the water and avoid flooding us in Valenzuela.

During Habagat wayback 2013, I remember NLEX in Tullahan river were flooded after La Mesa dam continuously overflows. Consequently, when this happens, Mcarthur highway along Marulas is surely overly flooded and lots of houses will be surely in danger. These was the scenarios we, living in Valenzuela would not want to happen again.

Flood Alert

As stated on my previous blog regarding effect of La Mesa dam overflowing, it is now in the news that Malabon residents were alerted for possible evacuation...

FLood forecasting exercise

I do not want to sound all-knowing, yet through this blog, I will try to document the 5 day weather forecast from @earth.nullschool.net and relate this with the possible water level rise in Marikina River and also Tullahan..

See below weather forecast by earth.nullschool.net from today until after 4 days:

   

Note that this simulation from the above website is just computer made, the parameters are bound to change every hour or so..I do this exercise for curiosity only..

We will observe that the typhoon is continuously going westward to Taiwan and the wind also pulls the monsoon rain which will definitely bring continuous rains until weekend perhaps. It was reported earlier by PAGASA.

Also, at this hour, La mesa dam is already on verge of spilling level..and if this scenario persists, for sure the La mesa dam will continue to overflow until weekend. of course not, we all know that although monsoon is continuous, rains may not dropped continously. But the definite scenario is that flooding will persist until weekend.

Base on this trend, I believe Marikina river will definitely rises up until it reach critical level such that evacuation of people near it will be ordered by local government.

With this continuous rains, slope failures may be happening since the soil gets saturated due to continuous moisture it takes from the rains.

These are all possible scenarios which always happen yearly..I will update this blog for documentation purpose.

Again, I dont want to send wrong information here..Just my way of documenting everything..pardon the technical errors where it occurs.

Rainfall Return Period

I have a feeling that this continuous rains brought by 3 successive typhoon which pulls the southwest monsoon will break another record of rainfall return period. PAGASA is surely closely monitoring this event..

Definitely, a one day event of historical return period may not yet equalled or exceeded. But the cumulative rainfall for say 5 days or even one month rain may be exceeded on their record..Lets find out..

Jessica Soho Antique Episode on Large Fish Prior to Storm

Last Sunday July 12,2015, Jessica soho featured an episode of large fish captured in Antique.

(Photo from FB antique)

Scientist told during the interview that fishes like this only came out when salinity level of the sea is changed. Some speculated that this event is a sign that something big will happen.

. I believe its sudden appearance has something to tell for us. Antique I remember has one of the deepest sea elevation in the Philippines. Coming out of such animal must have some definite reason other than the salinity level as observed by the scientist. .

Structural Investigation of House Near West(Marikina) Valley Fault Line

I have recently investigated a two storey house near Marikina Fault line. This fault line, can generate magnitude 7.2 earthquake according to MMEIRS. As structural engineer, we are required to refer to NSCP in designing house for earthquake prone region like Philippines. I discovered upon looking at the as built drawings that the beam size is only 150 x  300mm. I was surprised how little the beam was. Luckily, upon looking at the analysis, this beam will not carry sufficient amount of earthquake and will mostly carry gravity load of slab weight and occupant weight. The slab thickness will also contribute to additional strength of the beam. However, I will not design beam like that in order to save money.

The columns or post is luckily satisying the code provision of minimum dimension. The main problem is the beams which are supposed to carry earthquake loads. The main beams are all sized 200mm width and the reinforcements are not sufficient. On this cases, a more tedious analysis of the structure is required like setting up rigid end offset manually in the software to reduce moment carried by the beam,  live load reduction if applicable and also reducing super imposed dead weight according to actual condition.

I would like to suggest to clients and readers that they keep design callculations submitted by structural engineers so that in the future, everyone looking at the plan will have ready references on the assumptions made by the engineer on record. This is normally practiced in building construction. Unfortunately, this is often neglected in residential construction..

Typhoon in Philippines - Lando/Koppu

Earlier, Typhoon Koppu a.k.a Lando here in the Philippines have made landfall. Several news have forecasted it will be a super typhoon and it will even dumped more than 40 inches of rain or more than 1 meter.

Also, I observed that last night several rivers up North luzon already started increasing water level just before Koppu's landfall. Thus, I am thinking the forecast above could be true.

Earlier in the afternoon, PAGASA also said that Angat dam had already increased water level.

Unfortunately, according to earth.nullschool.net..the typhoon will last for almost a week.That will surely be a disaster if it continue damping heavy rainfall in the metro.

 

Seminar on Detailed Structural Investigation

Last week, ASEP held another seminar regarding detailed structural investigation. I am very eager to attend here but my schedule does not allow me to. Though I have substantial knowledge on the topics (see below later), attending such seminar is a must for structural engineers. I am outlining the topics and will try to typed out everything I know about them:

1. Objectives of Structural Investigation
   1. Here in the Philippines, the main scare regarding the coming of the Big One or the Magnitude 7.2 earthquake from Marikina Valley Fault line prompted all concerned building owners to check the adequacy of their structure to withstand such shaking. Not only that, some buildings were designed using the old NSCP codes. Thus, analysis of the structure using the latest Code must be implemented. Its a separate topic below.
2. Data Gathering
   1. For structural engineers, data gathering like the measurement of structural sizes of the beams and columns are very important. Also, the number of rebars installed on the structural members will be the input in the structural investigation and will be the basis of the adequacy of the building.
3. Destructive Testing Procedures
   1. Topic number 4 below is always the first priority and not the destructive testing. However, certain datas like number and sizes of rebars are difficult to determine on site thus the need for destructive testing. Again, it will depend on the significance of the investigation if destructive testing will be required. We personally do not recommend this. With this, building owners are encouraged to keep their building structural plans to make sure that datas like rebar size and columns are known.
4. Non DEstructive testing procedures
   1. This is the first major step in the investigation. Rebar scanning or detection is one type of nondestructive testing.
5. Engineering Evaluation
   1. After all datas are gathered, analysis of the building will be done and evaluation will follow.
6. Effects of fire in strength of concrete and structural fire loads
7. Target Seismic Performance LEvel
   1. This kind of topic always leads me to think about performance based analysis  which is a more technically advance topic.
8. Earthquake Parameter response spectrum and time history
   1. The NSCP has what we call design response spectrum which all structure must be designed with. Parameters like building period, distance to fault line and soil type where building rests are all required to formulate this response spectrum(graph). Time history is a more detailed analysis wherein the building will be subjected to known earthquake acceleration and investigation of the response is required. I believe that deep understanding of structural dynamics is required here.
9. NSCP
   1. The code that every structural engineers use in the Philippines to design structure to withstand earthquake.
10. Retrofitting Techniques
    1. After analysis of the structure in the investigation is finished, proper retroffiting techniques will be recommended. As a rule of thumb, structures designed prior to year 2000 has tendency to fail with the current code provision. Note that this is my personal experience only because the code used then was NSCP 1994 I believe. Please check.
11. Crack Repair
    1. Building failure is normally reflected through the occurences of cracks. However, most people are not aware, that structural engineers actually design most structural members to crack but with certain allowable size only. The idea of designing members to crack is to follow ductile failure rather than brittle failure which is indicated in the code. Again, most cracks we see in structure are non-structural. Structural engineers are required to see if cracks are structural failure in nature.
12. Alternative Strengthening of RC structures using Fiber Reinforced polymers
    1. This technology were already used before but needs further discussion since its avery popular way of retrofitting technique.
13. Retrofitting the building performance using dampers/base isolation.
    1. This technology is also very popular in Japan because they experience earthquake almost everyday.

Memory Tricks for Remembering Formulas in Engineering Exam

For many years, I have been using many memory tricks to aid in my review for any examination and also to help in my professional career. I was surprised when I was in 2nd year college to know that such techniques are available in the bookstore.

 
I stumbled upon Carol Turkington's book and I was amazed by knowing the memory tricks I learned from that book. And they have proven effective. I am able to won many quiz bees on college and it gave me confidence that I can learn anything that I want to as long as I apply the strategies and paid proper attention. I even passed my masters degree qualifying exam using all these techniques below.

Here are the following memory tricks I used from the book:

1. Acronyms
• This strategy is pretty simple. We have all learned this since elementary. The famous ROYGBIV stands for all the color in the rainbow.Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet will be remembered using that acronym.
  
2. Visual Memory
• I should say that I am more of a visual person. I can memorize formulas, sequence of chapters in the book and numbers by visualizing them. And i believe that most people are more into visual memorization. 
  
3. Mnemonics
• This is the most helpful memory tricks I used. Especially in engineering, we have to memorize lots of numbers in the formulas, conversion factors with numbers and constants. Using Mnemonics is a surefire method to use in those cases. For example, the numbers 1 to 10 can have corresponding letters in the alphabet. I used t =1, n=2, m=3, r=4,L=5 and so on..Now, when you have constants like 3.1416 that will mean MTRTP for my mnemonics. So what word will form out of that? Number 1 rule that I follow is to use vowels in between consonants. I may use the word..MoTheR Tap..to mean 3.1416. So you visualize your mother tapping a circle every now and then. That will surely help you remember the value of pi. Alright!
  
4. Methods of Loci
• Loci in greek means location. I use this method in combination with the other method. And with my 12 years of using memory technique, I find it easy to use method of loci when I need to remember chapters of the book. For example, there are 12 chapters in the book which I need to understand the sequence, I will visualize 12 locations that I know. And of course those locations ,say my neighborhoods houses, are all fixed in the earth. Then each houses will correspond to each chapter in the book. Visualize the title of the chapter happening in that house. Then as you walk through your streets, you will visualize each houses corresponding to each chapter in the book.
  
5. Combination of Methods
• Now, you will need to combine all those techniques above. And this is the fun part. For example, each chapter of the book which correspond to each houses in your streets has formulas. Say the pi constant appeared in first chapter. Visualize your MoTheR Tapping on that house where pi appears. Thus, you were able to use Mnemocis and Loci and visualization in each chapter. That will surely helped you in memorization. You will now be full of enthusiasm to memorize your textbook if you apply those methods.

My New Project

With the release of Google Instant Street Viewer, I would like to pursue my new project. To use all the photos in there for better visual aids in my report which I will post later..