Structural Engineering - The Vital Design Process

Without the brilliance of most structural engineers, our world would be a very different place. Simply put, structural engineering is a vital design process for modern society.

The word "engineer" has several meanings. It can be used as a verb that describes making something happen. It is a noun that describes the man who gets to drive the train. Yet, another meaning, also a noun, is of a person who is a professional and educated craftsman. What is structural engineering? It is a part of this vast profession of the engineer. Many people consider it a subsection of the field of Civil Engineering, but others see it standing alone.

Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary gives a very interesting definition of engineering. It is one of many uses of the word, of course, but it is the one that best fits the idea of structural and civil engineering. It says it is "the application of science and mathematics by which the properties of matter and the sources of energy are made useful to people." The key here is the idea of making something useful to people.

Civil Engineering is really just a term to separate the original and older form of engineering, which is Military Engineering, into something that is not used for warfare or defense. Structural Engineering has to do with structures. This can include a multitude of things from furniture to space stations; from dams to apartment buildings. The important thing and the thing that occupies the attention of the structural engineer is resisting load and dissipating energy.

Load can take many forms. It is sometimes called "stress." For example, a bridge must be build to handle load and stress that comes from the weight of the structure itself or the traffic passing over it. It can be subjected to stress from the wind and the weather. The "properties of matter and the sources of energy" must be transformed into something that can be useful to people. A structure is useful to people only if it is safe and if it can withstand stress.

Structural engineering is not often viewed as an art. It is seen more as science and in the cold and harsh light of practical application. This view misses the truth, however, when one things of the structures of the world both in our long past and in our amazing present. The imagination and creativity that has been shown from the Pyramids of Egypt to the mighty Hoover Dam to the bridges and tunnels that have crossed our rivers and even oceans, surely must rank with the greatest art our minds have known.