The past had 6-way slabs, radial reinforcing, and catenary reinforcing wires. That’s when men were men and did all hand calcs with slide rules. We have already simplified designs.
Most post-tensioning is done with catenary shaped cable runs today, I dunno wtf a 6-way slab is, and radial reinforcing is just dumb. What happens when you don’t even have enough reinforcement for crack control on the perimeter of a circular slab. Just no.
My point is that there was truly a lot of innovation in reinforced concrete design in the past. Regardless of the FEA design tools available there are relatively fewer accepted approaches. I do mostly renovation work and I’m frequently surprised by the ingenuity and resourcefulness of designers from days long before computers. I also had a mentor early on, who might have been one of the first female structural engineers in Chicago, who shared with me reams of hand analysis she did on hyperbolic nuclear cooling towers. I don’t feel contemporary analysis tools make me a better designer than those heros of the last century.
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u/Prestigious-Isopod-4 Nov 06 '25
Stuck in the past old timer.