ETABS 2016 16.2.0 Enhancements

This version of ETABS is stacked with stunning features for Analysis, Modelling, Result Display and Output.

Analysis

  1. a) Creep & Shrinkage: This feature includes the rebar effect, which can help reduce axial shortening of walls and columns. The feature lets you choose two options for Longitudinal Rebar Ratio- From Design and User Specified Ratio and two for Vertical Rebar Ratio- From Design and User Specified Ratio.

 

  1. b) Modal Damping: This feature provides more conservative and realistic results through linear and nonlinear direct-integration time-history analysis. Here you can choose options for Viscous Proportional Damping and Additional Modal Damping.

Modelling

The new updates consist of new codes for shrinkage, creep, and stiffness aging. The models are New Zealand Standard 3101-2006, Australian Standard 3600-2009, Eurocode 2-2004, and GL 2000.

Result Display and Output

The result is displayed on slab cracked-width on Eurocode 2-2004.

Common Engineering Obstacles and How to Overcome Them

The engineering professionals tackles the most pressing issues in the market. They constantly bring new solutions while working under the tight deadlines. Three of the most common obstacles that the engineering professionals faces with the actionable tips to overcome them are mentioned below.

  • Staying Updated

As an engineer, it is important to stay updated on the recent trends. Not following the trends can make an engineer fall behind. Thus, it best to read daily updates related to technology.

  • Lack of Creativity

Engineering requires the professionals to be creative all the time. Sometimes, when professionals are too occupied with the deadlines, they might miss the creativity. For this, it is best to spare some time out of the schedule. A workout away from the work area can be beneficial.

  • Boosting Productivity

Working on tight deadlines sometimes needs the professionals to sit in one position for long hours which might cause stress and body pains. To avoid such situations, it is best recommended to take stretch breaks regularly.

New Techniques in Civil Engineering

Civil Engineering is evolving every day with the changing technology. Civil Engineers are now using innovations such as suspension systems to build bridges and using the GPS to plot new roads. As the technology brings new techniques, the civil engineering field continues to incorporate creative ways. Here, are four new techniques that are likely to change the construction process:

  • Self- Healing Concrete

Cracks in the concrete is a common phenomenon. The cracks impair the durability of the concrete as they provide an easy path for the liquid and gas containing harmful substances to enter. To avoid this situation, researchers at the Bath University are working on a self-healing concrete that will contain micro-organisms inside microcapsules. According to the researchers, these micro-organisms will release limestone as water enters these splits to prevent the materials from breakage.

  • Warm Bridging

Insulation material has become prominent in the construction industry. For this, Nasa developed material, Aerogel for cryogenic insulation. This material is considered as one of the most effective thermal insulation material. The technology is used to insulate studs, which can reportedly increase the overall wall R-value which is an industry measure of thermal resistance by more than 40 percent.

  • Active Footfall

Researchers are now working out ways that can produce energy from footsteps. The technology used is known as Pavegen Floors. These are rubber tiles that have a spring-like action that generates energy when stepped on. This is a brilliant concept to harness the human energy power. The Pavegen tiles can benefit the most when installed in busy city areas to generate energy.

  • Photovoltaic Glazing

Building structures that have the Building incorporated photovoltaic (BIPV) coating that is capable of producing their own power. The technology transforms the entire building envelope into a sun-powered board. An organization, known as Polysolar is providing photovoltaic glasses as the building materials. These Photovoltaic Glasses also do not cost much over the customary glass.

Apart from these, other technologies are also set to change the civil engineering practices such as Kinetic Roads, Cloud Collaboration, and Asset Mapping.

Introducing AutoCAD 2018

The CAD technology is consistently updating its features to offer you supreme quality designs. The technology will help you to develop aerodynamic bikes, high-speed railways, or energy efficient building. The technology is adding value to the designed products improving the designer’s day to day efficiency. The year 2018 has brought about a lot of features in AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT technology. These added features will help designers to create and share precise drawings using the innovative productivity tools. This tool will also save a lot of time and minimize frustration making things simpler. Below are some of the enhanced features the 2018 version will bring about.

PDF Import Enhancements

The PDF import features, as indicated by the design professionals will help them save a lot of money. The AutoCAD 2018 let you use the SHX text recognition tool to quickly convert the imported PDF geometry to text and Mtext objects. The improvised text and Mtext tools, in turn, lets you convert a combination of single and multi-line text objects into a single multi-line text object automatically predicting the formatting.

Object Selection

The AutoCAD 2018 lets you begin with a selection window in one part of your drawing. You can then pan the zoom to another part while maintaining a selection of the off-screen objects.

External Reference Path Enhancements

The broken reference issue is resolved in the enhanced AutoCAD 2018 version. The new version helps to reduce this issue by saving time and minimizing the frustration. The new integrated tools help you to easily replace the paths of one or more missing references with a new path.

High Resolution (4K) Monitor Support

The 2018 version is enhanced to support high-resolution monitors to ensure the best possible viewing experience. The enhancement will make it possible to view objects and figures on a 4K display or higher versions. To make this possible, the new AutoCAD 2018 has a possibly scaled up user surface elements such as the Start tab, Palettes, Command line, Toolbars, Dialogue boxes, ViewCube, Grips and Pick pox. These elements are appropriately scaled and displayed as per the Windows settings.

 

The AutoCAD 2018 has some promising features to help you develop your designs in the way never imagined before. The new version brings a new set of capabilities to improve the graphics and performance while ensuring the Trusted DWG technology you always have been relying upon. The DWG format is updated to improve the efficiency of open and save operations.

5 Awesome Things Scientists Do With Lasers

Lasers are the cool and amazing light beams that make us excited. You can see them in a meeting room pointing to an object, or you can even play with them in your home. Lasers may seem pretty recent inventions, but they are with us for over half a century. The laser technology is not only cool but also, they are really useful in the field of science and technology. Below are five awesome things that the scientists can do with the lasers.

Optical Levitation: Lasers are powerful enough to levitate stuff. Photons that make up the light exert a force which is known as the radiation pressure. This pressure is so powerful that it can overcome the gravitational force to make an object levitate.

Optical Tweezers: The radiation pressure, as discussed above can be used to make optical tweezers to manipulate objects. The technology can affect objects as small as an atom.

Laser Cooling: Lasers can work as coolants too. Lasers are capable of cooling things down by reducing the momentum of atoms or molecules.

Fusion: The laser technology can recreate the environmental conditions which are found in the core of the Sun in the laboratory. Lasers can heat materials up to extremely high temperatures – about a million degrees. Atoms at these temperatures break down to form a soup of ions and electrons. Such a phenomenon causes fusion releasing a high amount of energy. This method can lead to clean power generation in huge amounts.

Image Biological Reactions: You can make little science movies with an x-ray laser. Having a very short wavelength, they can capture images of stuff as small as an individual atom. Lasers can take snapshot images of even molecular reactions very quickly. Such a method helps researchers learn biological reactions in detail.

Therefore, lasers have different uses and strengths, applicable for industrial purposes to medical profession bringing a broad scope of this technology.