Their work takes account mainly of safety, technical, economic, and environmental concerns, but they may also consider aesthetic and social factors.
Structural engineers ensure that buildings and bridges are built to be strong enough and stable enough to resist all appropriate structural loads (e.g., gravity, wind, snow, rain, seismic (earthquake), earth pressure, temperature, and traffic) to prevent or reduce the loss of life or injury.
Fatigue is also an important consideration for bridges and aircraft design or for other structures that experience many stress cycles over their lifetimes.
Consideration is also given to the durability of materials against possible deterioration which may impair performance over the design lifetime.
At the senior year level or in graduate programs, prestressed concrete design, space frame design for building and aircraft, bridge engineering, civil and aerospace structure rehabilitation and other advanced structural engineering specializations are usually introduced.
Some have called for a master's degree to be the minimum standard for professional licensing as a civil engineer.
The process to attain licensure to work as a structural engineer varies by location, but typically specifies university education, work experience, examination, and continuing education to maintain their mastery of the subject.
Professional Engineers bear legal responsibility for their work to ensure the safety and performance of their structures and only practice within the scope of their expertise.
For instance, California requires that candidates pass a national exam, written by the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES),[5] as well as a state-specific exam which includes a seismic portion and a surveying portion.
license, is limited in Alaska, California, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington to some high importance structures such as stadiums, bridges, hospitals, and schools.
A 2010 survey of professionals occupying jobs in the construction industry[8] showed that structural engineers in the UK earn an average wage of £35,009.