Tales

Talking About Life’s Engineering Saga (TALES)’ is a segment that exclusively focuses on the top Structural Consultants across the globe sharing their engineering journey in their own words. We have – Divyesh Mistry – sharing his deep knowledge with us…

An engineer who follows and believes that hard work gets rewarded and has been the reason for his success over the last 15 years. He believes in learning new things and upgrading with times…

Divyesh Mistry, Director, Baldridge & Associates Structural Engineering Pvt Ltd is here with us to share his engineering journey…

INSPIRATION…

Tall structures always fascinated me. After undergrad, I visited the US and was really fascinated by the skyline of downtown Houston & New York. I was curious about all those buildings standing tall during earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters. That curiosity makes me evaluate and challenge myself to become Structural Engineer.

Engineers use many skills which are often a combination of maths and physics, sprinkled with art and creativity. Engineering is not easy but can get you rewarded for your hard work, so I choose Engineering as profession.

LEARNING CURVE FROM STUDENT TO PRO…

My career started with a traditional undergraduate degree after 3 years of diploma in Civil engineering from MS university of Vadodara. I choose to work in the design field for 2 years which helped me a lot during master’s degree in structural engineering.

My strong academics and sound understanding gave me good start to my professional career and I was lucky to come across some really challenging projects in India and worldwide where I picked up the skills needed to develop constructible solutions to make building/structures safe, efficient and sustainable.

ENCOUNTERING CHALLENGES…

I think the main challenge is to provide a solution keeping in mind the dreams of an architect, the requirements of services andpracticality of a contractor, and the cost consciousness of a developer. A structural engineer faces these challenges on all projects every day.

USAGE OF PARALLEL FLANGE BEAMS…

There are numerous advantages of PFB compared to conventional ISMB sectionssuch as higher section modulus, ease in connections, higher strength to weight ratio, etc. Parallel flange beams really helped in projects with composite steel and concrete structures especially where shear studs are provided. Thicker and wider flanges can accommodate multiple layers of shear studs for effective and stable force transfer mechanism between concrete and steel sections and provide higher section modulus.

CHANGE TO WITNESS…

Certainly, I would suggest removing unnecessary weights on buildings. Following Newton’s second law of motion, seismic forces are directly proportional to the weight of the building, and so heavier buildings will have higher seismic forces in an earthquake. Usually, the buildings in India are a lot heavier than those in other parts of the world. This is mainly due to unnecessary weights which are due to the use of thick,lower quality concrete finishes in parking, lower quality fill and finishes in residential and commercial buildings, clay brick masonry partitions, and lower quality of fill weight to give flexibility for plumbing installations.

As a result, a typical residential building in India can become as high as 50-75per cent heavier than buildings in the US. Also, these additional weights mean more construction material, which does not promote sustainability and green initiatives.

AFFAIR WITH STEEL…

Steel is a versatile material, and it is used for all types of structural members including as reinforcements in reinforced concrete, standard mild steel sections for steel buildings, prestressing strands in post-tensioned members, as metal deck and studs in composite constructions,and as connections in structural wood.

Throughout my journey so far, I have used all forms of steel materials in designing structures. Structural steel has higher reserve strength under plastic deformation before failure, which makes it more applicable where there is need for ductility.

BEST STEEL WORK…

We are working on one major commercial development with ITC in Bangalorethat has large column-free space and a sleekand elegant design where we maximized the use ofsteel-concrete composite construction.

The project also houses a large, cantilevered cafeteria which is unique. Apart from that we are also working on a few industrial structures in India and some medical office buildings in the USA.

INTERNATIONAL PROJETC THAT STRIKES A CHORD…

Sky deck of Marina Sand Bay Singapore. It has the perfect balance of art in engineering design, construction management and added advantages of damping devices for vibration control.

UPGARDING WITH CHANGING TIMES…

I believe in constant learning as best way to upgrade with the changing times. In our day-to-day practices, I typically refer toASCE, ACI, AISC, and IBC codes.Those codes are updated frequently based on new research, studies and experimental tests carried out around the globe and accounts for different environmental and extreme weather conditions.