Originally Posted by
pawnhead
They taught us how to design trusses and calculate all the compression and tension values at each connection.
They taught us how to calculate all the tension stresses (and shear I think) in a suspended and cantilevered concrete slab.
They taught us how to calculate all the shear and tension stresses in a steel beam with point loads at random places along the beam, and they taught us how to design it by using the values that we got, against tables for the properties of steel sections. They also went into steel columns as well. I've still got the book with all the tables of the properties of steel sections somewhere.
And they taught us how to design a steel structure supporting an overhead set of traffic lights, ie a column that's bolted to a footing on the footpath, extending up, with a beam bolted on top that goes out over the roadway supporting the traffic lights. We had to calculate the torsional forces imposed on the column by wind forces acting on the traffic lights.