This website contains text material to help the structural engineering student learn the principles of the profession.  The site will eventually contain the author's collected notes and ideas from 20 years of teaching undergraduate and graduate structural engineering courses as well as continued practice in the profession since 1981. 

The material presented here is free to be used for educational purposes.  The work is copyrighted and all rights are reserved by the author. The author reserves the sole right to profit from this material.  It may be printed, copied, stored electronically, or otherwise distributed as long as proper credit is given to the author and there is no charge to anyone for the material.  While we try to be as accurate as possible, there is no warranty that the material here is accurate or correct.  Use the information provided here at your own risk.

Real structures or parts of structures and typical engineering drawings are used in these works as much as possible so that the student can transition into the practice of structural engineering with a minimum of challenge.

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Content

Latest News
   
Preface
   
Homework/Example Problem Drawing Sets

  • Miscellaneous Details

  • Dormitory Building

  • Wood Framed House

  • Communications Tower

  • Steel Truss Bridge

  • Office Building
Mechanics/Analysis Design

  • A BG to Structural Mechanics/Analysis

    • Moments of Inertia

    • Transformed Moments of Inertia

    • Approximate Frame Analysis

    • Load, Shear, Moment, and Axial Force Diagrams

    • Tributary Areas and Load Calculations

    • Continuous Beam Analysis

  • A BG to ASCE 7-05

    • General Information

    • Combinations of Loads

    • Dead Loads

    • Soil Loads & Hydrostatic Pressure

    • Live Loads

    • Flood Loads

    • Wind Loads

    • Snow Loads

    • Rain Loads

    • Ice Loads

    • Seismic Loads
  • Basic Design Concepts
  • A BG to the Steel Construction Manual (13th edition) - An online textbook now with example problems and homework assignments.
    • Introduction
    • Materials
    • Tension Members
    • Bolted Connections
    • Welded Connections
    • Plate Buckling Concepts
    • Concentrically Loaded Compression Members
    • Bending Members
    • Combined Bending and Axial Force
    • Composite Members
  • A BG to ACI 318-05
  • A BG to Timber Design

Sample Semester Course Syllabi

1 October 2009
We now have a new batch of hard copies of a Beginner's Guide to the Steel Construction Manual in! It has been updated with changes to the site through August 2009. Check it out in the BGSE Store.

24 August 2009
We're about out of the first printing of A Beginner's Guide to the Steel Construction Manual and are planning another print run. The new printing will include the refinements made to the website over the past year.

9 January 2009
The hard copies of A Beginner's Guide to the Steel Construction Manual have been reduced in price.  Check it out in the BGSE Store.

15 August 2008
The hard copies of the BG to the Steel Construction Manual are now available!  Check it out in the BGSE Store.

1 August 2008
After a long summer of extensive editing and additions, this site now has many upgrades.

A newly updated version of the BG to the Steel Construction Manual is done! This is now a viable text and will be available in hard copy by the end of August 2008.

There has also been additions to the BG to Structural Mechanics and Analysis.  Check it out.

The focus this fall will be to complete the rough draft of the BG to ASCE-7

16 May 2008
Well... the academic season is over and time to get back to work on this site.  Please feel free to send suggestions for improvement as this is the time to implement them!  Note that new usage statistics have been posted on their own page.

Server Instability
Be aware that this website is hosted on a home-based computer. Occasionally it will go down when the power goes off (happens a fair amount in the winter for up to 3 days at a shot) or my ISP decides to assign a new IP address (happens every few months). If and when a sponsor or two comes on board, the site will be moved to a more stable platform.

More....
Want to help?
Click here.

Usage Statistics

What we'd do if we had some advertisers or donors:

  • Put this on a faster, more stable platform.

  • Get an editor to look over this stuff.

  • Have a real web programmer help with developing an on-line homework grading system.  (We've got some great ideas for this!)

  • Add more content.

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