A couple of months ago I posted two of my structural steel programs in AISC (AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF STEEL CONSTRUCTION) 'Steel Tools' site. I just couldn't believe -- the two programs were adjudged as the best among other entries! Consequently, I was proclaimed as the 'POWER USER OF THE MONTH' for the month of December 2009 and the first winner on the category since the launching of the site.

Upon reading my name on the AISC Steel Tools, side by side with the company's name, my boss, Steve Coates, didn't waste time unfolding the news thru email, and has these words to say:

All:
Next time you see Dem, congratulate him on getting published..!! This is a great honor not only for Dem, but for Crystal Steel as well... It shows that we are an aggressive, technical steel fabricator with employees that provide support above and beyond the normal work...

Later, some people in our US office in Delaware began addressing me in their emails as AWARD-WINNING guy. Thanks, guys, for the recognition!

Please visit the site:

http://www.steeltools.org/STEELTOOLS/STEELTOOLS/Home/

or view link from here:

Imagine a scenario some years from now: the verdict on the murder case on Maguindanao massacre finds the Ampatuans not guilty! You will then be confronted with the same, ever-lingering riddles: Who could have then ordered the murder of the innocent victims? Who burried them? Who operated the backhoe that dug their grave? And who pulled the triggers of the guns that ended their lives?

Soon, people begin to realize: the 57 mutilated dead bodies retrieved from a mass grave in Maguindanao last November 23, 2009 are victims of MASS SUICIDE. They helped each other prepare their own GRAVE, MURDER and BURY themselves.

Let justice be served to the victims and their families...

Writing blogs was never my passion. I am a structural engineer and I am not so good in writing. I found interest in writing blogs just lately. I was searching for some topics in structural engineering when I was led to a blog site of an engineer. Then I got the idea: why not make blogspot as tool for storing notes and ideas. Being in structural engineering field, I found blogspot as a right place to express engineering ideas by writing it out. In so doing, ideas are recorded for safe-keeping within an infinite period of time.

As a startup, I am reproducing an article I wrote long time ago pertaining to a project I was involved with during my stint as young aspiring structural engineer. The year was 2003 -- the period when I was still working in IHI (Ishikajima Harima, Inc), a Japanese design firm. The company is known for its expertise in cement plant engineering and design.

The article I wrote and submitted to our project manager for his validation was intended to argue with our 'design subcontractor' about a design analysis they carried out. It was my belief that what they did was wrong: they committed a structural blunder in engineering analysis. The story will be clearly told as you read my article. Here it goes: (This is for engineers)

Start of Article...

DISPLACEMENT COMPATIBILITY PROBLEM IN STAAD MODELING & ANALYSIS

This article is dedicated to AMRAM CEMENT project. Discussions herein are extracts from my notes I took while working with the project.

THE PRINCIPLE
Consider the two dimensional structure as shown:

When force P is applied at Node C, Node B will be displaced and takes a new position that is Node B'. The amount of DISPLACEMENT as indicated is dependent on two factors: the magnitude of force P and the stiffness of members converging at Node B.

By Hooke's Law, as discussed somewhere in this paper, we will find out that the greater the force P; the greater will be the displacement at Node B.

Inversely, by the same Law, the greater the stiffness of the structure, the smaller the displacement will be at some specific nodes in the structure.