Homework #1

Due Date 08/26/2016

Rishabh Lala

Research, Building Codes, and Engineering Practice

Summary and Comment

The author, Dr. Siess, expresses his opinion about the flow of engineering knowledge amongst
three significant stakeholders, namely the codes, practitioners, and researchers. The two key
engineering knowledge sources, i.e. practice and research goes in tandem with each other
which allows gradual knowledge incorporation in the codes. The codes provide a platform for
the amalgamation of practice and research experience and become the source of new but
verified and filtered knowledge for practitioners. The new knowledge generates every day and
it's our responsibility to keep updating ourselves through relevant but thoroughly researched
technical reports.

The knowledge from practice has outweighed the knowledge from research. Many provisions
are empirical and practical in nature, like the design of flat slab was incorporated in the codes
even before their static moments were researched. Moreover, most of the code referred rational
theories are based on assumptions which may not hold true practically, for instance,
theoretically assumed RCC member properties deviates from in-situ properties. However,
analytically and experimentally researched provisions are present in codes, but the onus lies on
us to thoroughly understand their basis along with the structural behavior.

Research often takes a long duration to fit in the codes as the generalization of the results takes
time. The urgency from practitioners and the scale of project advances the alacrity in updating
codes. Moreover, a research may not be incorporated conclusively, for instance, instead of
incorporating researched increase of bond stresses, the codes modified the shear capacity of
the section for deformed steel. Also, due to the limited scope of the various researches referred
by the codes, the analytical understanding, righteous application of codes along with
continuous learning will form the virtues of a good structural engineer.

CES6706: Advanced Reinforced Concrete, Fall 2016