Structural Engineering In Action: 3 Practical Applications Of Structural Engineering
When hiring a structural engineer in Brisbane, you want to be sure you’re leaving your project in the most capable of hands. The team at Ettol have over 40 years of combined experience in engineering. Additionally, we’re firm believers in the early adoption of new engineering software and technology, so we’re always one step ahead. While we could tell you all the reasons why our engineering company in Brisbane is one of the leaders in our industry, nothing speaks quite as clearly as examples. We’ve compiled a few case studies of Ettol’s work in action and outlined a few of the highlights.
Load Testing A Handrail
In this case study, our engineering company in Brisbane used various software to load test a handrail. We used three different methods and three different tools to establish which was more accurate.
- Task: We were to check the proposed cantilever handrail against various actions. The handrail was to be tek-screwed onto a mounting plate, which was then welded onto grits, and we needed to ensure the handrail could withstand a load of 600N or 350N/m acting outwards or downwards on the rail.
- Approach: Ettol were given drawings of the handrail configuration which we modelled in ANSYS Spaceclaim. We then exported to ANSYS Mechanical, where we bonded contact connections between the holes for the tek-screws and the mounting plate. The handrails and plates were then modelled in SPACE GASS as beam elements with the plates modelled as two parallel beams to more accurately represent how the plate would behave. A structural engineer at Ettol then did hand calculations with the handrail as a cantilever beam, the plate as a continuous span beam, and each pair of tek screws as support.
- Outcomes: Each of the methods demonstrated that the handrail configuration was adequate for the applicable loads. We found, however, that the ANSYS technology was far more reliable and accurate than SPACE GASS and hand calculated results.
