Green stormwater infrastructure
With increasing urban development and a changing climate, city governments need to consider new ways to manage stormwater. “It’s not easy being green,” a recent paper from the University of […]
Insights
What you need to know about CALGreen
The 2019 edition of the California Green Building Standards Code, also known as CALGreen, took effect at the beginning of this year. Its goals include: reducing greenhouse gas emissions from […]
Floor flatness and levelness
Floor flatness and levelness matter in such applications as manufacturing facilities, big box stores, and warehouses. ACI PRC-117.1R-14 defines floor flatness (Ff) as “deviation of a surface from a plane” […]
Who is an author?
In technical writing the question of who is an author is more important than you might realize. Although the obvious answer is that it’s the person who wrote the report, […]
Thermal control plans for mass concrete
Specifications for mass concrete require thermal control plans to minimize cracking. Traditionally, mass concrete meant dams. But other structures may be large enough—or have enough portland cement—to treat as mass […]
Biomimicry: reverse engineering nature
Biomimicry comes in two forms. The first is simple imitation of the appearance of nature. The ancient Greeks proportioned their buildings according to the golden ratio φ = (1 +√5)/2, […]
Resilient engineering for climate change
Resilient engineering is design of infrastructure to withstand and recover from such major hazard events as earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, and wildfires. It goes beyond design for life safety. It also […]
What is a pooled sample?
The engineers’ code of ethics requires us to “hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public“. Here’s one way public health officials use statistics to do just that. […]
New product innovation Q & A
Q: I’M INTERESTED IN DEVELOPING A NEW CEMENTITIOUS PRODUCT BUT NEED HELP FIGURING OUT A FORMULATION TO MEET THE SPECIFICATIONS. IS THIS SOMETHING BETON HAS EXPERIENCE WITH? A: The products […]
Death by PowerPoint
One of the most memorable presentations I ever attended was at once both a highly engaging talk about archeometry and a parody of bad presentations. (In case you didn’t know, […]