Making the impossible, possible

Created by Joe Clifton , Structural Engineer MEng (Hons)

A feasibility study is broadly defined as an assessment of the practicality of a proposed idea or project.?

• Is it safe to make??
• Where is it going??
• Will it pass design codes??
• What materials might be used??
• How much will this cost??
• When is it needed??

These are some of the questions we ask ourselves the moment we're handed an enquiry - the very first part of the feasibility study. It generally boils down to 'Can we solve this problem?' At this point, we take our ideas to a consultancy phase and provide a range of answers and solutions.

Of course, it may be that the idea is totally outside the realms of practicality and completely ignores the laws of physics. But that's where we, as engineers, help steer the conceptual idea to a practical and safe set of design options.?

We work to propose solutions that are compliant with industry-recognised design and building codes, are practical to build, are made from suitable and readily available materials, are fully costed and still meet the original design intent that initially came across our desk. There will always be a degree of 'back and forth' with the client to ensure we reach a solution everyone is happy with. Above all, we must ensure that what we propose at Stage One is safe and will not pose any harm to those involved and the wider general public.

We strictly follow industry design codes and quality control procedures to ensure we create safe designs. We have to know the limits of all the parts of our design. This is done through engineering analysis and calculations, but sometimes it's not possible to understand the true behaviour of something by numbers alone. To find out the true limits of some parts, we have to purposely break them.

This may seem counterintuitive, but by purposely breaking things in a controlled way, we can fully understand their safe limitations. At Stage One, we regularly construct prototypes of our ideas and then push them to their extreme loading limits.?

Through destructive testing, we understand the bigger picture of how things behave under their real-life loading exposures.?

By pushing the load testing and purposely failing them, we then understand what margins of safety we have left compared to their expected applied maximum loading (aka a 'safety factor').?

Having a known' safety factor' allows us to prove we are making products that are safe for public use. Everything we make is designed to withstand greater loads than it will ever experience.?

Break testing and prototype manufacturing allow us to modify and develop our design ideas. Sometimes things don't go to plan. It may be that a particular material is not giving us the 'safety factor' we would feel comfortable with, or a mechanical component is not behaving as expected. So we 'go back to the drawing board' with the information we've just learned and form a new idea or approach. This iterative process of testing and trying new ideas allows us to refine a design that is feasibly possible to take forward into a full design and build phase of a project. We can then deliver a safe and satisfying solution to the idea that originally came through our door at Stage One.

If you would like to explore our R&D process in more detail, one of the more detailed examples on our website is Cloud Cities Barcelona, where you can go behind the design to find out more.

If you have an engineering dilemma that you'd like to discuss or a project you'd like to R&D with our consultancy team, please get in touch with our global account handlers at [email protected]?