A Beginner's Guide to Structural Engineering

by T. Bart Quimby, P.E., Ph.D., F.ASCE

© 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2017, 2021, 2023 T. Bartlett Quimby


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 - information about how to use the Standard for computing structural loads.  This section is not fully developed.
  • A BG to ASCE 7-10 - Currently underdevelopment. Should have a fairly good draft done by the end of 2017.
    • 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

Sample Semester Course Syllabi

 
  • Loads on Structures

 

  • Structural Steel Design
  • Reinforced Concrete Design
  • Timber Design

10 July 2023
While the actual manual is not quite yet available (it will be sometime later this month!) I have decided to post the update to the Beginner's Guide to the Steel Construction Manual, 16th edition. Check it out! There are no immediate plans for a hard copy, but there are plenty of BGSCM 15th edition still available in the BGSE Store.

4 June 2023
Thanks to the good people at AISC, I have been working on an update for the 16th edition of the Steel Construction Manual to be released in July 2023. Watch this site for the latest edition of this text. It will be posted the same week the Steel Construction Manual is released by AISC.

17 May 2021
Good News!
The hard copy version of the BGSCM-15 Website is now available in the BGSE Store.
We had not intended to do a hard copy, but after numerous requests we changed our mind.
We have also updated the BGSCM-15 website to correct a large number of typographic errors.

16 August 2017
We finished a quick pass at the update to the BGSCM 15th edition! We'd like to think that we caught all the changes. Given the speed of the update, however, it is likely that we missed something. Please report any errors or oversights or typos via the link to report problems, found on each page. Thank you for your patience.

At this point, there are no immediate plans for a hard copy, however, let us know (at quimbyassoc@gmail.com) if you have an opinion on the subject. There are still hard copies of the BGSCM 14th edition available, though quantities are limited.

7 August 2017
For a variety of reasons, we missed our 1 August deadline for the Steel Construction Manual 15th edition update. Sorry! We are working on the update, but other pressing obligations mean that it will not be completed for a couple of more weeks. We will post chapters as they get done.

1 March 2017
The 15th Edition of the AISC Steel Construction Manual will be released this summer. This site will be updated to reflect the manual by 1 August 2017

11 August 2011
The printer was faster than expected.  We now have copies of A Beginner's Guide to the Steel Construction Manual (14th edition) available for sale.  Buy your copy today at the BGSE Store!

30 July 2011
We have now posted the web version of A Beginner's Guide to the Steel Construction Manual, 14th edition... probably the first text out there on the subject.  There have been a host of small changes to the specification and we've significantly upgraded several of the chapters.  Check it out!  Hard copies are being printed right now and should be available in mid-August!

Usage continues to climb with over 20,000 unique visitors each month for several months in a row. The statistics are great!

30 March 2011
We've sold all copies of the Beginner's Guide to the Steel Construction Manual. The text is being rewritten in preparation for the release of the 14th edition of the Steel Construction Manual later this summer.  Hard copies of the new text should be available by 1 September 2011

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.


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