The motivation of this project is to analyse aluminium helideck designs and investigate various aspects concerning this design. The main focus regards fatigue based failure of the helideck. This project forms my MSc graduation at Eindhoven University of Technology and is in cooperation with Bayards. Structural software SCIA is used to model the structural behavior and to obtain internal member forces. A finite element analysis of all structural joints is performed with Abaqus. Lastly, Abaqus output is used for the fatigue assessment.

The architectural engineer has a big responsibility in seeking an optimal balance between science, technology and design. The specialization of structural design mostly focuses on designing and calculating the load bearing system of a variety of structures, including buildings, bridges, and stadiums. The most important task of the structural designer is to combine structural mechanics with the architectural concept to come up with an adequate structural solution. Important courses are: applied mechanics, stability of structures and structural-material courses, such as steel, concrete, timber and aluminium.

The bachelor education for architectural engineering provides the opportunity to obtain a broad foundation of knowledge about the built environment and the involved processes. In the second year of the bachelor program, a convergence is made toward the management & technology processes.

At the end of 2015 I switched to the Bayards Research and Development (R&D) department. There are still many (new) possibilities of the application of aluminium left to be explored: this is the main focus of the R&D dept.

My primary task as a Structural Engineer at Bayards is designing and calculating a various range of aluminium structures. The most common structures are: aluminium helidecks for both offshore and onshore locations, walkways, platforms and other aluminium (support) structures often to be found on offshore drilling rigs, etc. The design of the aluminium structures is performed from start to finish: implementing the correct regulations and codes, the client's wishes and expectations, creating basis of design documents and, in the end, create the appropriate reports to be issued for approval and construction. The reports often consist of (but not limited to) structural member design and checks, structural joint check, lifting analysis, etc.

Revising the structural design aluminium lecture book, commissioned by Eindhoven University of Technology. Activities include translating dutch to english, updating data, and implementing correct Eurocode chapters instead of the old GTB rules. Also, a complete layout revision is needed, including updating (or creating) the figures and graphs. Note: on a project basis till mid-end February.

Individually tutoring high school students. Main courses: Mathematics, Chemistry, English, and Dutch. Part-time, flexible hours, on average 10 hours a month.

Primary responsibility: drawing various projects in AutoCAD. Ancillary activities include processing of surveys and editing files in Adobe Photoshop. Part-time, 17 hours a week.