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CURTAIN WALL DESIGN

Presented by Engr. Jelean Nadine Naval
The speaker of the seminar was an alumna of University of Santo Tomas and is currently
taking up her graduate studies in engineering at De La Salle University. She has a wide
experience in designing Curtain Walls, way back when she is still working in Dubai. She started
the talk by showing buildings with curtain walls. Throughout the entire talk, she was always
encouraging the audience, no matter how low their grades are, to pursue structural engineering,
relating that she also failed some of her subjects way back in her undergraduate. Engr. Naval
detailed her discussion from defining what a Curtain wall is. Moreover, she gave a hint on how
much is the starting salary for a Curtain Wall designer compared to other structural engineers. It
shows that since the salary is quite high compared to its contemporaries, the job is has a high
demand with a low turnout of applicants, perhaps because of their lack of knowledge that Curtain
wall design is not just for architects but for structural engineers too. Most, if not all, perceive
curtain wall as an architectural ornament only of a building, however, as Engr. Naval explained,
curtain walls require structural designs from connections to cladding especially for thermal
stresses. In fact, she even said that there is no exact code to be used in designing curtain walls,
especially for glass types. Hence, it makes the job more challenging and more demanding in
terms of analytical skills. Research is the center of curtain wall, for its design is way
unconventional compared to other structural elements that we see. Since NSCP has a limited
provision for glass and curtain wall design, different codes from foreign countries are being
utilized for the design. Furthermore, Engr. Naval showed the detailed design of the curtain wall
members (e.g., claddings, connectors, etc). She further added that lap splices are the best
examples for internal pins that we often encounter in our mechanics or structural analysis
problems. She ended her talk by showing videos of how annealed and tempered glass differ from
one another, since it is essential to know what type of glass must be used in designing curtain
walls.
Curtain wall design is an emerging sector of structural engineering in the country. Though
it may have existed several years ago, only a few of the percentage of structural engineers go to
this type of job. It offers a challenging yet different outlook on how a structural engineer should
and must design. It widens the set of structural members a structural engineer can design. Most
of all, curtain wall design is not just an architectural job but also concerns a structural engineer,

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for it requires heavy computing, through softwares, and analytical skills needed for its
engineering aspect of design.

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MONTE CARLO SIMULATION AND ITS APPLICATION IN CONSTRUCTION

PLANNING
Presented by Engr. Marion Ryan Vicencio
The speaker was an alumnus of De La Salle University, and is currently taking up his
graduate studies in engineering from the same university. Engr. Vicencio, being an owner of a
construction firm, discussed how delays affect project schedules and how Monte Carlo
Simulation (MCS) can be a solution in scheduling construction activities. Prior to his talk, I have
been familiar with Monte Carlo Simulation as a predicting tool for seismic vulnerability
assessment, since it was the first tool that we suggested before our topic was approved. However,
I was fascinated that this predicting tool can also be used in construction activities and
scheduling. Engr. Vicencio explained that such tool uses probabilistic method and requires a
background in programming languages, since MATLAB will be used. The conventional way in
local setting for construction scheduling is through the Critical Path Method. However, Monte
Carlo Simulation offers a premise in decision making, way better than that of CPM. Though it
may require thousands of samples, Monte Carlo simulation can predict and give the client and
engineer a better picture of what is to expect and how high the percentage is in completing the
project on time. Construction delays has been an issue and is very prevalent here in the
Philippines. As per the speaker, he rarely sees a construction activity here in the country being
accomplished on time. Most if not all are always delayed due to poor planning and decision
making. Engr. Vicencio stressed out that, although Monte Carlo Simulation is a probability only,
it can still picture out how confident is the contractor in accomplishing list of activities for the
construction project, one that we cannot see in Critical Path Method. Through seeing the bigger
picture being offered by MCS, we can decide on how many weeks shall we extend in order to
provide a higher percentage of finishing the activity on time. Hence, if MCS can be applied in
the earlier part of the planning, decision-making will be easy on the later part of the project. The
only downside, perhaps, of MCS is that it requires high analytical skills in probabilistic
computing. Should MCS be developed further for a wide-scale use in construction activity,
delays have a higher percentage of being reduced, if not avoided at all.
Monte Carlo Simulation gave us another idea of its use, one that we normally dont
expect is through construction scheduling. It will better if it will be introduced as early as in
undergraduate so that it can be applied even by engineers who have no masters degree. MCS
offers a delay-reduced future for the construction industry if developed and introduced to all
construction practitioners in the country.