Back of the Envelope

Learn about structural engineering in just 5 minutes (once a week) -- brought to you by Andy Lin from Structural Engineer HQ

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Envelope #31: Cliff notes for “Type of Construction” and why you might care as a structural engineer

Andy Lin2 minutes ago

Wind

Envelope #30: “I feel like I should know this…” Concrete Refresher

Andy Lin21 days ago

Concrete

Technical

Envelope #29: Let’s talk about “stress”

Andy Lin3 months ago

Non-technical

Envelope #28 (Part 3): The virtuous cycle (and deadline to apply)

Andy Lin4 months ago

Non-technical

Envelope #28 (Part 2): 1+1=3 Experiment

Andy Lin5 months ago

Non-technical

Envelope #28: 1+1=3? (one of Ray Dalio’s Principles)

Andy Lin5 months ago

Visions and missions

Abundance

Non-technical

Envelope #27: Changes to the “reduction of development length” that you might not know about

Andy Lin5 months ago

Concrete

Technical

Learning and teaching

Envelope #26: Structural Irregularities “Cheat Sheet”

Andy Lin6 months ago

Technical

Seismic

Envelope #25: How do you keep track of IBC/CBC “Referenced Standards”?

Andy Lin6 months ago

Envelope #24: Turkey earthquake

Andy Lin7 months ago

Concrete

Technical

Seismic

Envelope #23: My new boss + Eisenhower matrix

Andy Lin8 months ago

Visions and missions

Non-technical

Envelope #22: Four (or five) stages of learning/competence

Andy Lin10 months ago

Learning and teaching

Non-technical

Envelope #21: Site Class D in ETABS and a dad joke

Andy Lin10 months ago

Envelope #20: How to quickly determine the allowable height for interior, non-bearing, metal stud partition?

Andy Lina year ago

Technical

Steel

Envelope #19: GFCI outlet and structural engineering?

Andy Lina year ago

Technical

Envelope #18: Super-Quick Concrete Beam Check

Andy Lina year ago

Concrete

Technical

Envelope #17: Recruiters - yes or no? Maybe not, maybe so

Andy Lina year ago

Non-technical

Envelope #16: Do you know the difference between A706 and A615 bars?

Andy Lina year ago

Concrete

Technical

Envelope #15: Are notches and holes in wood joists OK?

Andy Lina year ago

Wood

Technical

Envelope #14: How to get your point or idea across to “non-engineers”

Andy Lina year ago

Learning and teaching

Non-technical

Envelope #13: Let’s play “detective”

Andy Lina year ago

Technical

Seismic

Envelope #12: Composite decks – two checks that you wouldn’t want to miss

Andy Lina year ago

Concrete

Technical

Steel

Envelope #11: Rule of thumb for concrete thickness (over steel deck) to meet fire rating requirement

Andy Lina year ago

Concrete

Technical

Steel

Envelope #10: Interesting findings from the Fukae bridge collapse (Kobe 1995)

Andy Lina year ago

Foundation

Technical

Seismic

Envelope #9: "When you’re at a party, how to describe structural engineering without making it boring"

Andy Lina year ago

Non-technical