Texas Structural and Ethics 15 PDH Discount Package 2

This online engineering PDH course provides guidance on designing foundations, including selecting the appropriate materials, in coastal areas.

Design considerations for foundations in coastal environments are in many ways similar to those in inland areas. Like all foundations, coastal foundations must support gravity loads, resist uplift and lateral loads, and maintain lateral and vertical load path continuity from the elevated building to the soils below. Foundations in coastal areas are different in that they must generally resist higher winds, function in a corrosive environment, and withstand the environmental aspects that are unique to coastal areas, such as storm surges, rapidly moving floodwaters, wave action, and scour and erosion. These aspects can make coastal flooding more damaging than inland flooding.

This online engineering PDH course provides the design professional with sufficient background and examples for effectively designing a residential building proposed to be constructed in a coastal hazard area. The designer will find that engineering judgment will need to be applied to a range of issues which will arise during the design of a coastal residential building. This course describes the design process which involves the following:

• Determining design loads
• Determining the building’s foundation, structural frame, and envelope
• Determining the connections between individual elements
• Determining the elevation, placement, and support for utilities
• Selecting the appropriate materials

In this course, the recommended design method is Allowable Stress Design (ASD), so there are factors of safety (FS) built into the development of the material stresses and the forces at the connections. This design method has been chosen for this manual because ASD continues to be the predominant design method in light-frame, residential, wood construction.

This online engineering PDH course discusses constructing buildings, including foundation, framing, building envelop, and electrical and mechanical equipment, in coastal areas. Individual sections cover construction items that will probably require the most care or attention on the part of the builder in order for the design intent to be achieved. Builders may find that the permitting and inspection procedures in coastal areas are more involved than those in inland areas. Not only must all Federal, state, and local Coastal Zone Management and other regulatory requirements be met, the design plans and specifications may need to be sealed by a design professional.

Construction of residential buildings in coastal zones presents challenges to the builder not usually found in more inland locations. For all coastal residential buildings, these challenges may include the following:

• Connection details require additional inspections
• The need for careful surveying to place the building within property line setbacks and above The Design Flood Elevation (DFE)
• The additional care required to ensure that all elements of the building will withstand the large forces associated with high wind speeds and coastal flooding
• The additional care that must be taken in constructing a building envelope that will withstand the intrusion of air and moisture under the effects of high wind speeds
• The difficulty of providing durable exterior construction in a moist, sometimes salt-laden, environment
• The requirement to protect and, usually, place utilities above the DFE

In constructing coastal residential buildings on elevated pile foundations, builders face additional challenges:

• The difficulty of constructing a driven pile foundation to accepted construction plan tolerances
• The difficulty of building on an elevated post-and-beam foundation, compared to building on continuous wall foundations

This 4 PDH online course is applicable to structural engineers, design and construction personnel, and other technical professionals who are involved in coastal construction projects.

In this online engineering PDH course, background on the philosophical models that guide ethical behavior is discussed and then applied to specific situations in engineering codes of ethics. This course is based on the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Professional Practice Curriculum, Volume 8, Section: Engineering Ethics.

Many engineering organizations have drafted codes of ethics to which their members are required to commit.  Generally, these codes are quite similar and are based on a few fundamental principles which provide guidance to professional engineers in common situations. Nevertheless, there are many difficult or ambiguous situations in which the best ethical solution is difficult to determine.

This 2 PDH online course is intended primarily for engineers seeking to learn ethical principles and how to apply them to their professional practice.