Engineers in need of an improved conceptual design toolbox

This paper presents the results of an investigation conducted on a number of practicing structural engineers. The investigation was designed as a round-robin investigation were 16 engineers performed two early stage structural engineering tasks; the first a load take-down calculation for a five-storey concrete building, and the second the conceptual design of a 68 m span steel roof truss. The results revealed a large variability both in load effect calculation for the first task, and in truss steel weight for the second task. Moreover, the investigation as a whole indicated that both the development of conceptual understanding and the quality of conceptual design are negatively affected by the premature use of advanced analysis tools. It is proposed that more education resources, both in academia and in practice, should be invested in the development of conceptual design skills and basic principles of engineering.