Donald F. Meinheit

Experience

Donald Meinheit joined WJE in 1979 and has served as project engineer and project manager on numerous collapse and failure investigations, laboratory test programs, and a variety of other structural and material evaluation projects. Dr. Meinheit has published articles on fatigue of steel connections, bearing walls, box girder bridge behavior, parking structure repair, expansion anchor behavior, head-stud anchor behavior, and manufactured housing foundations under both static and simulated seismic conditions.

He is an active contributor to several committees in ACI, CRSI, and PCI and has given lectures on repair of structures, failure investigations, and anchorage-to-concrete design. Dr. Meinheit has long been associated with the precast concrete industry and is an expert on precasting, precast concrete materials, headed stud anchorage design, and architectural precast concrete. He has contributed extensively to the anchorage design provisions in ACI 318.

REPRESENTATIVE PROJECTS

Failure Investigation

• Memorial Stadium - Lincoln, NE: Collapse investigation of south stadium grandstand
• Conesville Power Plant - Conesville, OH: Collapse investigation of mechanical draft cooling tower and recommendations for inspection of similar towers

 

Research and Testing

• Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute: Design criteria for headed stud groups
• Dayton Superior: Laboratory testing of flange connectors under monotonic and seismic loading
• Commonwealth Edison: Laboratory testing of post-installed expansion anchors for nuclear application

 

Concrete Repair Design

• Chicago Midway Airport - IL: Corbel failure investigation and repair design
• Horseshoe Casino Hammond - Hammond, IN: L-shaped spandrel repair design and prototype testing

 

Inspection and Evaluation

• Rookery Building - Chicago, IL: Assessment of clay-tile floor arch and cast-iron column
• High-Speed Rail System - Seoul, Republic of Korea: Quality audit of all transportation facilities
• City of London Water Reservoir - ON, Canada: Water leakage and base slab analysis
• Northeastern Illinois University - Chicago, IL: Water leakage and tile coating investigation of swimming pool
• Water Reservoir - Faribault, MN: Investigation of excessive wall cracking and repair recommendation
• Woodmont Water Tank - Avon, CT: Water leakage investigation of concrete tank

Professional Affiliations

American Concrete Institute, Fellow
American Institute of Steel Construction
American Society of Civil Engineers, Fellow
Concrete Reinforcing Steel Institute
Post-Tensioning Institute
Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute, Fellow
Structural Engineers Association of Illinois

Registrations

Professional Engineer in IL, IN, TN, and TX
Structural Engineer in IL

Education

Purdue University
Bachelor of Science, Civil Engineering, 1966

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Master of Science, Structural Engineering, 1968

University of Texas at Austin
Doctor of Philosophy, Structural Engineering, 1977