[ The method ]

We are different.

When people tell us about their structural problems, disheartened by the answers they have received, and we offer them a simpler solution than they could have imagined, we realise we have more than a client: we like to call them a ‘believer’.

Hand calculation of a beam on paper by Javier Mataix

In structural calculation, two plus two does not always make four

It is very hard to explain in words that, in structural calculation, two plus two does not always make four, and that we work with living elements and with many variables that are not usually considered and that lead to wrong calculations time and again. It is not easy:

  • To understand and apply the fact that an ‘undisturbed’ soil sample has undergone changes in moisture, compressibility and handling.
  • To grasp that ‘barring latent defects’ reflects a lack of rigour in geotechnical surveys, accepted by the engineers themselves, and that the generic allowable bearing pressure of 1.00 to 1.25 kg/cm² is hard to justify.
Hand drawing by Javier Mataix: the ground accepts at most 1 kg/cm², whereas an 80 kg person on tiptoe, on a 10 cm² base, transmits 8 kg/cm².
An 80 kg person on tiptoe transmits 8 kg/cm² to the ground: eight times the pressure usually allowed for the soil.
  • That the loads the structure will bear must be ‘modelled’ as realistically as possible: otherwise, we will be designing a structure for loads that are completely different from those it will actually have to bear.

And that only then, when we apply these and other variables on paper, can we use the right calculation theory and, with it, the software we need.

Javier Mataix: experience in structural calculation

Javier Mataix, civil engineer and founder and director of Ingeniería Estructural Plus, diagnoses, designs and calculates by hand:

You must be able to calculate how a structure works on a single sheet of paper. That is the acid test: what does not fit on the sheet will not fit in the computer.Javier Mataix

With 30 years of experience, his drive to master continuum mechanics and the theory of structures, as well as soil mechanics and rock mechanics, makes him a tireless researcher and developer of theories and calculations.

The Ingeniería Estructural Plus Method

As director and technical lead, he sees only one way forward for clients. The Ingeniería Estructural Plus Method allows us to identify the optimal solution for the needs of each structure, adapted to the ground on which it stands:

Optimal solution=Knowledge+Calculation theory(design, materials and soil)

Ingeniería Estructural Plus gives you freedom in the design you want to create and solves the structural problems you may encounter. We apply the calculation theories that genuinely suit the materials, the structural elements and the type of ground available on site.