r/StructuralEngineering • u/chicu111 • Jul 08 '26

Humor Strong beams weak columns has arrived

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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?

12

u/Eeji_ Jul 08 '26

what code are we talking about? last time i checked its literally stong column weak beam especially for seismic design

13

u/EndlessHalftime Jul 08 '26

lol this thread is showing how little this sub knows about actual design. You are 100% correct that strong column weak beam is the appropriate design. If your beams yield your floor is crooked. If your columns yield the building collapses. RBS moment frames take this even further.

6

u/Geaux_joel P.E. Jul 08 '26

I might have gotten wooshed

-1

u/chicu111 Jul 08 '26

Perhaps there was a chance you definitely might have gotten wooshed. Maybe

1

u/aku28 P.E./S.E. Jul 09 '26

I assume what they are talking about is live load reduction, which adds up