Re: ampacity
The ampacity of ten #10 THHN copper is 20 amps, as Ryan has said. And yes, you can put eleven #8 THHN into a 1 1/2 inch conduit. But in that case, the ampacity would be 27.5 amps (i.e., 55 amps times a 50% derating factor). However, did you mean to say ?10 circuits?? A circuit has 2 wires, so 10 circuits would have 20 wires. Please note that you could still put twenty #8 THHN and one #8 EGC into a 1 1/2 inch conduit, and the ampacity would still be 27.5 amps. But as Ryan said earlier, that would be a difficult installation.
I can?t comment on whether the engineer is ?OK,? because you did not tell us enough about the proposed design (e.g., what is the required ampacity, and how long is the run?).