The discipline that keeps buildings and structures standing safely.
Structural engineering is the discipline concerned with the strength, stability, and serviceability of the built environment — designing the beams, columns, connections, and foundations that carry gravity, wind, and seismic loads safely to the ground.
Structural engineering designs the load-carrying skeleton of buildings, bridges, and other structures. The engineer determines the loads a structure must resist — dead, live, snow, wind, and seismic — then sizes members and connections in steel, concrete, wood, or masonry so that the structure has adequate strength and stiffness under every required load combination. The work ranges from individual member design to lateral systems that resist wind and earthquakes, down to the foundations that transfer all of it into the soil.
The field is governed by a layered system of codes. Loads are established by ASCE 7, the building code (IBC) sets the overall framework, and material-specific standards govern design: AISC 360 for steel, ACI 318 for reinforced concrete, the NDS for wood, and TMS 402/602 for masonry. Because a structural failure can be catastrophic, the work is heavily calculation- and code-driven, and engineers who stamp drawings are licensed Professional Engineers (PE), with the SE (Structural Engineering) license required in some jurisdictions for significant or high-risk structures.
Beams, columns, braces, and connections designed to AISC 360 using LRFD or ASD, including stability and connection limit states.
Reinforced and prestressed concrete — beams, slabs, columns, walls, and detailing — designed to ACI 318.
Light-frame and heavy-timber wood design per the NDS and masonry design per TMS 402/602 for walls and bearing systems.
Gravity, wind, and seismic load development per ASCE 7 and the design of lateral force-resisting systems (braced frames, moment frames, shear walls).
Spread footings, mat foundations, deep foundations (piles/drilled shafts), and retaining walls coordinated with geotechnical soil capacity.
A structural engineer designs the load-carrying parts of buildings and structures — determining the loads (gravity, wind, seismic), sizing beams, columns, walls, and connections in steel, concrete, wood, or masonry, designing lateral systems and foundations, and producing stamped calculations and drawings that comply with the building code. The goal is a structure that is strong, stable, and serviceable.
Loads are set by ASCE 7 (Minimum Design Loads), with the International Building Code (IBC) providing the overall regulatory framework. Material design uses standards such as AISC 360 for steel, ACI 318 for concrete, the NDS for wood, and TMS 402/602 for masonry. Seismic design adds provisions like AISC 341 and the seismic chapters of ASCE 7.
The path is the FE (Fundamentals of Engineering, typically FE Civil) exam, relevant work experience, and then the PE (Professional Engineer) exam — for structural work, the NCEES PE Civil: Structural or the dedicated 16-hour SE exam. Some jurisdictions require the SE license to design specific structures such as schools, hospitals, or other significant/high-risk buildings.
LRFD (Load and Resistance Factor Design) and ASD (Allowable Strength Design) are two design philosophies permitted by codes like AISC 360. LRFD applies factors to loads and a resistance factor to capacity, comparing factored demand to design strength; ASD compares service loads to an allowable strength found by dividing nominal strength by a safety factor. Both yield safe designs and are widely used.