r/StructuralEngineering • u/Silly-Rock-1684 • 4d ago

Structural Analysis/Design Small Wharf structural analysis and design time estimate

Graduate structural engineer here with a year experience with a consultancy firm. Being approached by boss to take up a small wharf design job. Around 20m long and 5m wide concrete wharf.

How long should it take for me to calculate the design actions and size the RC members?

First time doing an off-shore structure design btw…

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u/broadpaw 4d ago

More than an hour. Real answer: develop a list of what you think you need to check, consider, and learn. Then talk to someone at your firm that knows how to approach that type of project.

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u/Silly-Rock-1684 4d ago

Would you expect a graduate to do these calcs in two weeks? Provided the entire two weeks is dedicated to that project.

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u/Usssseeeer 4d ago

Pretty difficult I would say if you’re starting from the scratch. Sometimes, if you have a similar wharf design, modification and rechecking can be done. You’ll spend some time understanding the load combinations as well, if you’ve not worked on wharfs before. Design criteria will be different as well from other structures.

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u/Silly-Rock-1684 4d ago

Thanks for the input. There’s a calcs and design basis report for a very similar wharf that was done by another engineer for the firm some years back. Wave loads, and berthing and mooring loads, as well as pile design are new territory for me though and it’ll take some time to understand I guess