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From Damascus Swords to A992 – the Evolution of Steel

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Damascus Steel – Dominating the Medieval World

“Damascus steel” whispered the merchant, pulling the sword out from under a pile of silks to show it to me.  “The strongest, sharpest, and most durable steel in the world.  All of you want it, only the most deserving can have it.”

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I, the itinerant adventure arriving from the west, seeking my fortune here in the Middle East, had ventured into this bazaar in search of treasures not available back home.  Like so many visitors before me who had crisscrossed this part of the world – the Crusaders, the Mamelukes, the Mongols, the Turks, the British – I was taken by both the beauty of the object, plus the power that such a weapon could bring. Continue reading →

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An Up-and-Down Career: Roller Coaster Engineer

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The Original Structural Analysis in the Cloud?

Last week I was chatting to my daughter about my blog.

“Your articles are OK,” she said.  “But why don’t you write something that would appeal to someone my age, a 20-something?”

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“Like what?” I asked.  “What aspect of structural engineering might interest a 20-something?”

“How about Roller Coaster Tycoon?” she suggested. Continue reading →

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Houston’s Structural Skyline: From Steel and Glass to Beer Cans

AC-1Houston’s Structural Extremes

This weekend, Saturday April 11, Houston’s Annual Art Car Parade will be held.  It is one of the highlights of the local entertainment season, a perfect meld of engineering/mechanical aptitude and artsy wackiness: something purely Houstonian.

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The idea of the Art Car Parade is that anyone with an old junk car (or anything else on wheels) spends a year or more decorating it in a unique artistic style that speaks to them alone: the car may end up covered with dancing lobsters, or disguised as a dragon, peacock, or even as Siamese twin VW bugs.  Then one Saturday a year, 250 or so art cars parade down one of Houston’s main drags, like some psychedelic Easter parade strutting for the appreciative crowds.  If you can’t make the Art Car Parade in person, here is the next best thing:  http://www.thehoustonartcarparade.com.    
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Happy Steel Week from Nashville!

This week brings me to Nashville, TN where CloudCalc is exhibiting at the NASCC 2015 (AISC’s annual steel conference).

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Three days spent talking steel to the 4500+ engineers, designers, detailers, fabricators, academics, vendors, etc. who have registered to attend sounds like the makings of an engineering overdose.  But where others, less-stalwart, might be tempted to cry “¡No más!”, I actually came to Nashville with the intention of seeking out the engineering heart of the city above and beyond the convention itself.  Or specifically, in honor of Steel Week, my quest was to find Nashville’s most inspiring use of steel. Continue reading →

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Traveling Engineer: In Search of the Panama Canal

PA-1 Going on the road to bring you better blogs

“A man, a plan, a canal – Panama!”

A man – that’s me, check.  A plan –I worked out the itinerary for my weekend trip, check.  Panama – I landed at Tocumen International Airport as expected, check.

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But a canal?  That one I wasn’t quite sure of.  For a while I was wondering if that was possibly a tourist hoax, like the the Jackalope or the Loch Ness Monster… Continue reading →

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This Joist is Jumpin’: the Structural Dynamics of Dance

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Don’t try this until a Professional Engineer has checked things out

I’ve been out dancing several times in the past month or so – New Year’s Eve was spent with a Latin band which played salsa, bachata, and merengue.  A few weeks later my wife and I went to a ballroom gala, getting an opportunity to trot out our fox trot, rumba, cha-cha, and swing.  And every few Fridays we manage to squeeze in an hour or so of our favorite, Argentine tango. Continue reading →

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The Roeblings: An Engineering Family, and the Cable that Connected America

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Emily Warren Roebling – an Unlikely Structural Engineer

“A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people…”  So began the year end summary of my blog’s reader traffic sent to me by WordPress, the site that hosts the CloudCalc blog.  “Your blog was viewed 1,900 times, by visitors from 69 different countries, in 2014.  If it were a cable car, it would take about 32 trips to carry that many people.”   Continue reading →

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Move over Snoopy and SpongeBob, Future Engineers Join the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade

Th-1Can’t make it as an engineer?  Then maybe consider football player…

I’ve never been able to come up with any association between Thanksgiving and engineering (Tension on a wishbone?  Buckling of pumpkin pie crust?), so I figured I had a good excuse to take this week off from the blog.  But then I read some engineering-flavored Thanksgiving news and decided that when offered inspiration I have to grab it. Continue reading →