#phd engineer

At least one story should be a happy one. This one was.

The whole story is rather long. I was working for a company that made water rides. We got an inquiry from a HUGE entertainment firm. They are still a money no object kind of organization for certain things. Sales received a request for a special ride system for a pair of cruise ships they were building. Part of this was a strange feature where water is used to push boats up small inclines. I was the expert on that so I was asked to look at that part and check what they had done.

The basic ride had been laid out with standard fiberglass tubes and they had a price figured out. The Client was less than happy with it. It was OooKaay. I had done projects with this company before. They lavish designers on the smallest details. I asked the salesman did they send artwork? Yes, but we can't build what they asked for. Show me the artwork. He did a bit reluctantly.

I cannot say exactly who the client was as I signed an NDA. They do not admit to having outsiders design their stuff.

They had prepared several renderings and even a set of story boards for their vision. It was really cool actually. Big crystal clear tubes wrapped around the top deck of the ship. Curved loops and long straight runs above happy people playing and stuff like that. Very Jetsons kind of look if you know what that is. If it were any other company wanting this it was impossible. But these guys will often spend whatever it takes to get what they want.

I told the salesman we can build exactly what they want. It will be very expensive but they wont mind. I know who can build those big clear tubes. I can do a full design for it and we can requote it. AND they will buy it.

There was a meeting in two weeks. Credit to the salesman and the owner that they told the customer that we were going to "try" to build exactly what they show in the pictures. and give them another price. I did a design for the whole layout in 3D CAD. I got sizes and quantities for the big tubes to be made from acrylic. We did computer renderings of the finished ride.

There are two companies in the world who can make acrylic that heavy to the size and quality required. I had done work with both. I got prices for the parts I needed. I took the most expensive option for costing it. The price quoted for the full blown concept was 10 times more expensive than the first one. They loved it. The PM (which that company calls the "producer") said if they could not get this exact thing it was not worth building the boats. ( Calling them boats was to piss off the ship people a bit)

So the adventure began. There was a lot to do. Key to this was the ships were to be built in Northern Germany. They had a full engineering team. (German Engineers!) They also had a consulting marine architect firm in Norway working on it. That was a bit scary. Lots of number crunchers. We had two guys. Me and one other to push numbers.

So I called another firm nearby that does very complex stuff and knew the ropes and had several PhDs on staff. I wanted someone not to actually do the work, but to look over our shoulders while we did it. They came back and said they couldn't, they did not do consulting and were very busy. But they knew a guy. This guy was a full professor at the local university and had several PhDs. Why you need more than one is a question, but hey he had them. I went to meet him and we hit it off. A fun good humored person and German to boot.

We showed him the plans and he was generous and helpful. He kept his eye on what I was doing, and what our structural engineer was doing. There were some things new to us like vibration in the structure from the engine exhaust pulses, and propeller speed. He was an expert on vibration. One of his PhDs involved aeroelasticity. My idea was to have him familiar with all our work just in case.

I went to a big meeting in Germany where I helped the ship designers to route access stairs and loading stations which was going inside one of the ship's stacks. There were also many mechanical items to sort with water flow and weight of the ride and the water in it that high in the ship. If affected stability. It was crazy and fun. I actually like hard things like that.

Unfortunately while all this was going on one of the managers was after me as I was not "on his team". No kidding he was an ass. So I was asked to leave the company just as the project was starting fabrication. Me delivering a big success would hurt his status. A real ass.

Then just in case happened.

A few months later there was a crisis. People flew in from California, Germany, and Norway. They found a problem with the ride supports. Everything was put on hold. I was not there, but I was told this later by my old boss told me what happened and it was great.

A phalanx of German engineers sat on one side of the table. The ride project team joined by our PhD was on the other. I am sorry they did not call me in to watch. The ship engineers laid out what they thought was the problem. The professor listened carefully and thoroughly shot down all their concerns. "I was brought in at the beginning. I saw everything they were doing. I checked much of it. They have done a brilliant job and thorough. I see issues with your work. Oh and I have several PhDs from Germany how many advanced degrees do you have?"

The client went from very concerned to ecstatic. It was the ship's teams problem for not taking certain things into account. They had to go home and fix their work.

This was my first personal encounter with a PhD engineer.

I was working on a parking garage in Alberta. My job was to analyze and detail the prefabricated concrete beams, columns and floor members of a 5 story garage. Basically the only thing I was not responsible for was the overall stability of the structure and some stair towers. I had to calculate it anyway as I needed to provide all the connections that carried these loads to the stair towers along the sides. These stair towers were being built of conventional cast in place concrete and were to provide the lateral load resistance so the thing would not blow over in a strong wind.

The overall design was under a consulting engineering firm who designed these stair towers. They also showed where expansion joints were to be. Expansion joints are needed as structures grow and shrink by changes in temperature. A 60 foot long beam is shorter at -40 in winter than it would be in summer heat. They are needed.

The person who represented the consultant was a PhD. He designed the towers and was going to review and approve my calculations.

My concern started when I looked at the locations of the expansion joints. There was a stair tower along one side of each section defined by a set of joints. The idea of these joints is no load is transmitted horizontally across them so that they are free to move with temperature. Wind loads work horizontally. There were either 4 or 6 groups of platforms mutually isolated and supported along only one side. That seemed wrong to me. Each section was eccentrically loaded. As I had to derive the loads going to the stair towers I assumed each section went to one tower straight on.

The PhD reviewed my calculations and was fairly complementary about them. "I can see exactly what you are thinking!" His review was in agreement with my assumptions of those loads. Oh and these were all written out on many pages of graph note paper. Equations written out with answers and stuff and code reference numbers sketches of shapes and details. I used a pocket calculator. No big computers and such PCs had yet to be invented.

So I asked him about the expansion joints. They are needed obviously, but supporting the platforms along one side meant they would twist under wind would they not? His response was of the nature don't you worry about it. I asked he said it would be fine. He was a PhD and I was a junior engineer. Later in my career I found eccentric lateral loads could be a real problem to deal with. They required extra bracing and details in specific areas to deal with. This project had nothing like that.