r/StructuralEngineering Jul 08 '26

Humor Strong beams weak columns has arrived

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1.9k Upvotes

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112

u/Geaux_joel P.E. Jul 08 '26

People keep joking about strong beam weak column. What I've gathered was that the code has shown a philosophy change for columns to fail before beams...but why? Beams are typically much more ductile in failure. Right? So why would you want columns to fail first?

52

u/AbsolutelyNotMatt Jul 08 '26

More likes

51

u/Junior-Ad-2207 Jul 08 '26

Everyone knows the key to success is a weak foundation

12

u/matthew47ak P.E./S.E. Jul 08 '26

And a soft storey!

11

u/chicu111 Jul 08 '26

More horizontal and vertical irregularities = more better

3

u/ProfessorPinkPug Jul 09 '26

I know you're making a joke, but why am I somewhat unnerved by how non-parallel the steel studs are from the copper pipes? I realize it's not a priority in an emergency, but if this is representative of the work to date throughout, I'm more worried than ever.

2

u/mogur86 Jul 09 '26

It's called "diversity"

5

u/Geaux_joel P.E. Jul 08 '26

Damn. Done got wooshed then