Page 156 - Forensic Structural Engineering Handbook

STANDARD OF CARE 4.5

the use of the staircase, and were not intended to prevent owners from incurring costs asso-
ciated with correction of code violations. 19

ROLE OF THE STRUCTURAL ENGINEER

Structural engineering is a profession. In his book, The Ethics of Science, David B. Resnick
characterizes a “profession” as being distinguished from other societal organizations or
20
institutions in several ways: Professions allow the achievement of socially desired goals;
incompetence or unethical behavior on the part of the professional can result in harm to the
public; professions have standards of conduct and levels of competence which practition-
ers are expected to maintain, and standards of professional competency or conduct are
maintained by governing bodies; members of the profession must be educated and trained;
society places responsibilities on professionals and grants them certain privileges.
Structural engineering satisfies Resnick’s requirements of a profession. Structural engi-
neering makes possible the safe and efficient presence of buildings, bridges, and other com-
ponents of our technological civilization. Structures that fail to achieve their desired utility
can result in waste and financial losses. Those that fail to achieve their desired safety can
injure or kill people. Many organizations of structural engineers have codes of ethics or
practice guidelines, and engineers can have their licenses or registrations revoked if they
are found to have been incompetent or unethical. To qualify to take structural engineering
license exams, an applicant must have a certain amount of experience and education; and
to become registered or licensed, a structural engineer must demonstrate competency by
passing an examination. Some states presently require continuing education of registrants
to document the practitioners’ maintenance of a level of competency.
One of the responsibilities of the structural engineer is to achieve and maintain a level
of competency consistent with public safety. A privilege granted to structural engineers,
because they are professionals, is the acceptance by society of a certain amount of the engi-
neers’ error.

Structural Engineering Design
What in fact is structural engineering? It certainly involves the knowledge and application
of material science, physics and mathematics, and as such it is often thought of as an objec-
tive, “hard” science in its own right. However structural engineering is an activity based on
education, experience, and judgment, one characterized by collaboration among several
parties, often with contrasting or contradictory goals and world views. It is a design pro-
fession, a human activity involving iteration and selection of a preferred solution among
several alternate possibilities. Despite this fact about the “soft” side of structural engineer-
ing, and because of its foundation in the real world of materials, forces, construction, bud-
gets, and schedules, structural engineering is likely to always have a positivist, rational
perspective. The fact is, however, that the best structural engineering seems to be done by
practitioners who use both sides of their brains—both the intuitive and the rational.

Forensic Structural Engineering
Forensic structural engineers are asked to help when construction projects or constructed
facilities result in disputes or failures. The forensic structural engineer can help to deter-
mine the cause of a structural failure or the presence of construction that fails to conform
to the construction contract, or fails to meet the letter or intent of building codes; and can