Structural and Civil Engineering in Botswana Resources

QUESTIONS?
When it comes to engineering, engineers are the best resource you can find. So if you have any structural or civil engineering related question please feel free to e-mail me in the first instance. If you would rather get a variety of opinions on your question then I would recommend the link to Eng-tips where engineers including myself discuss engineering questions. I have found it to be a very helpful site. A question rarely remains unanswered for long.

Structural Engineers Forum
Soil mechanics engineering Forum
Concrete Engineering Forum
Steel Engineering Forum

SOUTH AFRICAN STEEL TABLES
Follow the links below to download Excel spreadsheet files containing the South African standard steel section tables. The tables include all relevant properties and are useful for building calculation spreadsheets.

• Cold Formed Lipped Angles

• Cold Formed Lipped Channels

• Circular Hollow Sections

• H-sections

• Parallel flange I-sections

• Taper flange I-sections

• Rectangular Hollow Sections

• Rolled Steel Angles

• Rolled Steel Channels

• Square Hollow Sections

PURLIN SIZER
Below is a downloadable Excel spreadsheet file which uses the information from the Cold Formed Lipped Channel spreadsheet to automatically size CFLC purlins.
Purlin Sizer Spreadsheet (NOW UPDATED JUN 2010)
Note that these spreadsheets are provided in good faith but are not commercial software, have not been extensively tested, and are therefore used at your own risk.

CEMENT AND CONCRETE
The Cement and Concrete Institute in South Africa have a website with some very useful downloadable booklets on anything that contains cement. You can also order the leaflets for free from this site.

ARTICLE - LOW RISE FOUNDATIONS IN COLLAPSING SANDS
This article looks at the fairly common occurence of foundations in collapsing sands in Botswana. What are collapsing sands, how do you recognise them and what can be done about them?

COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS
If you have any comments on any of the above resources or suggestions for other links or articles please e-mail me. There is such a lot of information on the web and a lot of it is not useful or particularly relevant to engineering in this area so any helpful links will be welcome