Expert Engineers with over 40 years experience
Expert Engineers with over 40 years experience
SEAL specializes in the investigation and analysis of as-built structures and damaged or collapsed structures. Our engineers have forty plus years of insight in building structural failures. We have an extensive and proven track record analyzing damages caused by various weather phenomena including hail, snow, ice, wind, storm surge, flooding, lightning, tornadoes, and hurricanes. Past work includes industrial complexes, commercial structures, residential dwellings, oil rigs, cranes, major public buildings, marine structures, and vessels.
Structural Engineering Staff Qualifications
SEAL engineers have degrees from top institutions. They have experience in structural experimental and analytical research in addition to structural engineering design, structural engineering project management, field structural engineering, and inspection. Our engineers are involved in numerous professional societies and have been active on numerous national committees through the years.
Structures are any system that resists vertical or horizontal loads. Structures include large items such as skyscrapers, bridges, and dams, as well as small items such as bookshelves, chairs, and windows. Most everyday structures are designed by testing, or trial and error; while large, unique, or expensive structures that are not easily tested are generally designed by a qualified structural engineers using mathematical calculations.
Structures are subject to vertical, and/or “Gravity” loads and horizontal, or “Lateral” loads. Gravity loads include “dead”, or permanent load, which is the weight of the structure, including its walls, floors, finishes, and mechanical systems, and “live”, or temporary load, which is the weight of a structure’s contents and occupants, including the weight of snow. Lateral loads include those generated by the wind, earthquakes, or explosions. Structural elements must be designed so that, as a system, the structure can resist all loads that will act upon it.