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This year’s theme for Mental Health Awareness Week is loneliness. No one is immune from feeling lonely and the pandemic really highlighted how much we all rely on interaction with others. Feelings of isolation have a negative impact on our wellbeing. By taking steps to prevent feeling isolated ourselves, we can also help combat loneliness in those around us. Read on to discover our top 3 tips for combating loneliness at work.

• Create a routine for checking in with others. Whether you start your day in a physical office, a virtual office, or even in the absence of an office at all, this is the perfect time to get in touch with others. Whether this be via face-to-face communication or a friendly message over WhatsApp, it will help the other person feel connected and give them a boost to start their day.
• Share but do not compare. Sometimes the emotions we are going through can harbour feelings of loneliness because we do not realise that others are going through the same things. By being open when we are struggling or having difficulties with our work we can help others to feel as though their feelings are validated. However, it is important that we do not compare- it is not a competition.
• Find shared interests. By talking about our hobbies and passions, we can find others with similar interests, and this can help communication flow. Even if someone does not have the same interest, your passion may spark something in them and encourage them to try something new- which can also be great for our mood and wellbeing.

What are your top tips for combating loneliness at work?

A structure, before being built must be analysed to ensure it can serve its intended purpose and resist any form of load it is subjected to. Before considering the design of any structure, a clear understanding of what loads it will be subjected to is required. This brings us to the question, what are loads?

Loads in simple terms are forces that cause stresses, deformation, and displacement of a structure. When not properly catered for, it may fail the entire system. Loads acting on a structure can be classified into three main categories:

1. Dead loads: These are also known as permanent loads. They are primarily due to the self-weight of the structure and any other constant loads transferred to the structure throughout its life span.
2. Live loads: This is the opposite of dead loads. They are loads on a structure that are constantly changing. An example is the load due to people walking in a building.
3. Environmental loads: These are loads on a structure because of the topography or weather conditions. They include wind loads, snow loads, earthquake loads, etc.

An engineer needs to understand these loads to be able to effectively design the structure to fit. However, understanding what these loads are isn’t enough. There is also a need to identify the path these loads will be transferred through in the structure to properly design an efficient and safe structure.

Different loads move in different directions, and the main function of the load path is to ensure that any loading on the structural system is transferred through connected members safely into the foundation. The foundation then forms the final link in the load path by distributing all the loads safely to the earth.

At KA Engineering Group, we leverage our extensive engineering experience to accurately design any form of telecoms structure ranging from complex GDC to basic DD analysis. We take responsible steps to consider, advise, and optimise each site, ensuring cost-effective design, installation, and maintenance for build contractors and efficient utilisation for operators.

Contact our expert team at: info@ka-engroup.com to learn more and discuss how we can best serve your needs.

Christmas is a time for giving and here at KA Engineering Group, we cherish the opportunity to give back to our community. Our two chosen charities this year were ‘TAMHI’ (Tackling Awareness of Mental Health Issues) based in Belfast and ‘Catching lives’ based in Canterbury.

With our focus on staff mental health and wellbeing this year, it seemed only appropriate that we select a mental health charity. ‘TAMHI’ raises awareness of mental health and resilience through sport. They work with sports clubs, schools, and youth groups to teach children about mental health in a fun and engaging way. Kingsley was lucky enough to meet with their director Joe Donnelly on Wednesday and find out about the fantastic work they have been doing.

Catching lives is an invaluable charity based in Canterbury which is aimed at supporting the rough sleepers, homeless and vulnerably housed in Canterbury and East Kent. Each year they provide a winter shelter, to offer emergency accommodation to rough sleepers, during the winter months. It has been a very trying year with last minute changes to the support they have been allowed to give due to the changing coronavirus situation. Ayo and Jess met with the winter shelter manager Paul, who was very grateful for the donation of essential items and treats, alongside a monetary donation.

It has been a tough year for most of us but hopefully by being kind to ourselves and kind to each other, we can work towards a happier year next year.

If you wish to make a donation to either TAMHI or Catching lives, you can do so via the links below:

Donate – Donation amount – JustGiving

Donate – Catching Lives

The element enabling the connection of the two dissimilar materials (steel and concrete/masonry) are fasteners, which resist the tension component of the applied force. The fasteners transfer the applied tension and shear loads to the base material (concrete/masonry) through various mechanisms shown in the attached image. For an efficient and reliable design, we must understand the behaviour of each element forming a post-installed connection.

Mechanical fasteners work via interlock (keying) and friction while chemical fasteners work via adhesive bonding between the fastener and base material. We will discuss more on working principles of post-installed fastening and their failure modes in subsequent blogs.

At KA Engineering Group, we leverage on our extensive experience to design and recommend most efficient fastening solutions for new as well as existing systems in telecom construction.

Contact our expert team at info@ka-engroup.com to learn more and discuss how we can best serve your needs.

At KA Engineering Group, we recently completed a project involving the structural analysis of a sequence of towers supporting netting enclosing a sports complex to ensure that the structures could withstand the wind and weight loading on the, tower, connecting wires and netting, protecting the public from stray balls.

The towers are connected as an array, so it is important to analyse the full connected structure to properly define the system response. However, analysing a large number of lattice towers in a single finite element analysis is complex and computationally expensive. To simplify, we completed preliminary analysis by replacing the lattice towers with single poles. We had to ensure that the poles were representative of the global behaviour of the individual towers. The closer the poles are to the towers, the more analogous the global interaction between the actual tower sequence.

We determined the global properties such stiffness, deflection, of each individual lattice tower. The structural characteristics of the poles (main inner and outer diameters) were iteratively refined until the pole and lattice tower responses were equal. The benefit of continuous refinement is greater accuracy. Using the resulting loads (forces, moments) from the sequence analysis of the poles, we were able to assess then perform detailed analysis of each lattice tower.

Using poles in the sequence analysis allowed us to deliver the project in good time to the client. At KA Engineering Group, we continue to push boundaries, developing new and unique ways to tackle structural issues and advancements in a range of applications. The dynamic nature of the development in our company sets us apart from our competition as we are always seeking to improve existing methods.

Contact our expert team at: info@ka-engroup.com to learn more and discuss how we can best serve your needs.

In wall mounted pole structures, the design loads on ancillaries, i.e. wind load and vertical gravitational loads, are transferred to the walls through the anchors.The anchor pull-out load is limited by anchor and wall capacity. In the event of pull-out load being higher than anchor capacity, internal load bearing back plates can be installed. But if the pull-out load is higher than the wall capacity, a different strategy is adopted to redistribute the loads.

At KA Engineering Group, we have recently analysed and proposed diagonal bracing in wall mounted pole structures at two sites to reduce the cantilever overhang causing high anchor pull loads and posing risk to the primary structure (the wall). The braces are designed to reduce the dynamic loads on wall by redistributing the loads to rooftop. This design also optimises the primary pole and wall brackets and results in a cost-effective solution. If the primary pole is mounted near the corner of wall, the braces can also be installed to secondary wall mounted poles in two orthogonal directions.

KA Engineering Group not only completes structural due diligence for all telecommunication support structures, we also take further responsible steps to consider, advise, and optimise each site, ensuring cost effective design, installation, and maintenance for build contractors and efficient utilisation for operators.Contact our expert team at: info@ka-engroup.com to learn more and discuss how we can best serve your needs.

The Special Hexagonal Lattice Tower is a good solution for site-share, aimed at accommodating several telecom industry operators and to provide for spare capacity for future technological upgrades. The design and analysis of these structures pose unique engineering challenges requiring specialist finite element modelling and analysis knowledge.

Some of the unique challenges are

• The modelling complexity due to the hexagonal configuration requires unconventional modelling skills to generate accurate structural model. The verification of such complex system response is only possible by an engineer with clear fundamental knowledge and experience.
• The several levels of connection design check due to the various combinations of loads (bending, shear, and tensile forces) requires efficient pre and post-processing tools.
• Finally, reporting must be simple and clear to both technical and non-technical users.

KAEG has the capability to accurately engineer complex and challenging telecom structures, including providing cost effective workable strengthening schemes aimed at improving structural capacity and life-extension.

Contact our expert team at: info@ka-engroup.com or kingsley.sunday@ka-engroup.com to learn more and discuss how we can best serve your needs.

At KAEG, our core engineering strength is the culture of upholding fundamental structural understanding as one of the most important attributes of being engineers. The introduction of software into engineering design and analysis is perhaps one of the greatest engineering breakthroughs. However, this undeniable good, is also threatening core understanding of civil/structural engineering fundamental first principles by fostering complete reliance on these powerful black-box software.

Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software, including 3D modelling, with spectacular 3D visuals are valuable telecoms engineering tools, enabling efficiency, improved modelling and accuracy, and presentation. However, these tools do not negate the need for understanding of the fundamental engineering principles. Some important axioms that we live by at KAEG are:

1. Engineering software, including powerful FEA can serve as garbage-in and garbage-out.
2. It is paramount to develop fundamental understanding of structural load-path and response behaviour.
3. Always fall back to first principles structural engineering to sense check software results/outputs.
4. Master and understand your recommended engineering design codes and standards.

A trained software technician can complete design and analysis, but a true engineer can understand, manipulate, validate, and interpret the structural model and response. At KAEG, we continue to drive quality by leveraging fundamental knowledge, techniques and skills enhanced by appropriate use of industry standard software.

Get in touch at kingsley.Sunday@ka-engroup.com or info@ka-engroup.com to discuss how we can best serve your needs.

The fast pace delivery schedule of 5G roll-outs mean that there is an increasing demand to deliver within tight programme schedule and to higher quality, utilising existing and bespoke structures to support heavier antennas and RRUs.

KAEG delivered more than 180 telecoms structural design and inspection projects in the month of August. We continue to demonstrate our dedicated support to our clients which includes other design consultants, design & build contractors, and operators. Our team of seasoned chartered and experienced engineers working to the highest engineering standards are well positioned to support the needs of the telecom industry.

Please get in touch at: kingsley.sunday@ka-engroup.com or info@ka-engroup.com to learn more and discuss how we can support and address your structural needs.