A guide to Consulting (fresh) Graduate Engineers

Salam,

A guide to Consulting (fresh) Graduate Engineers

Things to learn first :-

For those doing building services : parts of the building first - slab, walls, columns, beams, flying beams and there are other types of beams, finishes, reflected ceiling plan, part-plans, sanitarywares, ledges (this is where we put our outdoor aircond unit). 

(sorry : there's so much more we know that we can share but we hope that we could all help to share to these youngsters about pump curves, fan curves, cross-ventilation, nett free area, design point, static head, psig, etc. Can't do that alone. A lot more people can teach. Just that they're shy.)

(ok. i'll share one with you all here: put your air-cond outdoor unit at the ledge that the architect provided. Don't make that first mistake by assuming that the architect has provided the right space for you. You must check with the catalog the capacity of the air-cond unit and allow some circulation space, then only you sketch nicely on the print-out, scan and send to the Architect. Or if you're good at ACAD, and if you have the archi base (the basic layer of the building floor plan which forms a 'base' for your services drawings) then you may mark that area in the archi base and email it back to the architect. It's not over yet actually because the architect may NOT follow your nicely hand sketched PDF or your DWG because they may have missed that area because they had to work on many other parts of the building. It's a ledge they missed, right? It's okay, we check to see if the size of the ledge follows our recommended size? If don't follow, don't be too angry with the architect like some of us and our senior had done before. Okay, so how? Email again to archi the dimensions you need. Plus.. whatssap archi also - a gentle reminder to archi that you have re-emailed to the architect. If the archi's revision comes in should you check? pls check. If it's as per your requirement, you're okay.

Long story huh? You may miss this part also and turns out nobody paid attention to this ledge because the archi dwg says so and so and the structure dwgs also says so and so and it's too small for your outdoor unit, then how ah, you ask? Well, you don't have to ask how ah because you have read this blog so far. Remember that. Non-fiction, okay? 

Moving forward.

1) Architectural Drawings

Floor plans.

Elevations

Sections

There's another one called Standard Details but that one can be learned much later.

2) Structural Drawings

Key Plans (that's the term used by C&S Engineers)

There's another one called Beam Details - later in your practice.

3) Civil Engineering Drawings

Road and drainage plans (not relevant to Mech but relevant to Elect (re: Street Lighting) 

Earthworks 

Water supply

Sewerage

4) Architectural Drawings (Part II) - The Site Location and Key Plan. 

5) The rest such as shop drawings, as-builts, construction drawings, reflected ceiling plans, basement ramps configuration, flat slab, post and beam, scupper drains - and why understanding them is VERY IMPORTANT.

B. The Designs (I'm not electrical but I'll do all I can and your seniors and electrical colleagues are in much better positions to assist you)

Lets start with Electrical first -i'm typing keywords for you to ask your seniors and googling them yourself instead of fumbling for things to ask because you don't know. 

1. Double feeder, switchgear, transformer oil-immersed, transformer - dry type, gen set, kVA rating, fireman switch, MSB, SB, sub-main cabling, load balance, Megger test, earth rods, 5 Ohms - add salt for better tolerence, lighting socket, interlock switches with mechanical exhaust fans, 

this is not design part : we know you electrical are reading this also.thank you. you must insist mechanical for their mechanical equipment electrical kW of every of their equipment when you're preparing your electrical single line diagram -  failing which, you'll enter another dimension called the 'Variation Order' or V.O. 

and many others...

For Mechanical - yeah I know so manja-manja with same species sure detail2 one kan.. more and more keywords from this old engineer whatever whatever.. so okay la.. i'll spoil you a bit here...

you'll get a better deal..

Mechanical 

Cold Water

Chilled Water

Condenser Water

Grey Water

Black Water

Waste Water

Soiled Water

Vent Pipe

Hot Water

Hot Water Return

Hot Water Reverse Return (optional) 

Fire Water

Hydrant

Sprinkler

Wet Riser

Dry Riser

Hose Reel

Pumps

Transfer Pumps

Fire Alarm 

Fireman Intercom

Landing Valve with PRV

Landing Valve without PRV

Royal-flushed concealed ceiling sprinkler

Sidethrow Sprinklers

Ordinary Hazard

Light Hazard

High Hazard

Stacked goods

ST5

Static head contribution when you're doing your sprinkler hydraulic calculation. 

500 millibar or 0.5 bar (sprinklers - pre-calculated systems)

45 and 45+S (sprinklers)

30 and 30+S (sprinklers)

Clean Agents, wet chemical and hydrants

Split Units (ACMV)

Air cooled DX system

VRF Systems (acmv)

Air cond - cooling load, E-20 II or Trace 700, low-e glass, walls, doors, windows, roof, building material and their U-value. Glass with their U-value and also Solar Heat Gain and shading coefficient.

Pressurization - lift lobby, protected corridors, protected staircases

Smoke spill - large halls, atriums, basement car park, 6 air changes per hour and 12 air changes per hour.

Toilet ventilation

Transformer heat extract ventilation

Electrical rooms ventilation and gen set room ventilation

Plumbing - cold water

Plumbing - hot water

Plumbing - FRP and Poly tanks, Hot-dip Galvanised Pressed-steel tanks

Transfer pumps, Variable speed drive, Booster pumps with variable speed drive but be careful that you have static gain and take that into account when sizing your pump head.

No... no chillers yet. Too soon. Maybe after 2 years understanding DX. got a lot more other things to think about also. 

 Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and Natural gas (NG) - why larger pipe size for Natural gas and not LPG

Heat content for LPG is higher than NG.. why?

Regulators - first stage and second stage

Gas pipe sizing - based on MS 930 and the methods used such as longest length, NFPA 54, Pox method, et cetera.

Emergency Shut-off Valves (ESV) - pull cable type or solenoid type

Gas systems (NG or LPG) in relation to fire alarm requirements

Relationship between ACMV, Gas systems, Magnetic door lock, and all other services and systems with Fire Protection - including passive items such as compartmentation, running distance, escape routes, fire zone (that's compartmentation also but put in a different way).

Electrical - Conduits, cable trays, cable trunking, types of cables - 1.5 sq. mm, 2.5 sq. mm, twisted-pair screen, 22 AWG, 24 AWG (for Building Management Systems), 4 sq. mm and always ask for advice from Electrical when you're drawing your electrical single line diagram for your mechanical equipment such as pumps, fans, AHUs, FCUs, etc. 

Liasion with Authorities

Bomba

Local State Waterworks (SATU, SAINS, Air Selangor)

Local authorities such as DBKL and what not for your sanitary plumbing drawings submission right after Building Plan submission by the Architect to DBKL or any other local authorities. 

Tender document - I've put up some posts in Bicara Jurutera on this - please read them.

I'm sure I've missed quite a number of things but I hope with what I've written up there, it should be able to guide you to ask more questions and to google to find out the details or to refer to handbooks, standards or even textbooks on the subject. Apart from that is to attend seminars and workshops to gain more knowledge.

I don't spoonfeed you - just keywords for you to look for the information yourself. insha Allah, you'll be guided. 

I was just reminding you so that when you forget this post you will be reminded by your conscience to revisit this post to keep this memory sharp, insha Allah.

I wish you all the best in your work in becoming a Consulting Engineer.

thank you for reading and remembering ya.

Allah SWT knows best.

May we all be guided by Allah SWT, insha Allah. Amin.

Peace,

Wassalam,

FbI