Detecting Dam Failures
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission guidelines say that unattended hydroelectric dams must be monitored against failure around the clock. Design and installation of failure monitoring...
Northridge: Questioning Our Codes
The earthquake that struck Southern California at 4:31 A.M. Pacific Time on January 17, 1994 was responsible for 61 deaths, more than 9,000 injuries and $30 million in damages. From its...
Upgrading Dubai's Sewers
The sewerage system serving the city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, is plagued with odor and corrosion problems. System elements were deteriorating and failure rates were increasing....
RCC For Seismic Design
Throughout its 70-year existence, the Littlerock Dam in Southern California's National Forest has been the subject of concern. Located only 1.5 mi south of the San Andreas...
Design and Performance Requirements for Surface Facilities of a High Level Nuclear Waste Repository
This paper describes three important steps in the design process of repository surface facilities: (1) Establishing performance requirements and risk levels, (2) translating performance...
Controlling the Seismic Behavior of Precast Concrete
Precast concrete has, through the years the years, acquired a bad reputation insofar as its ability to withstand earthquake is concerned. This reputation, though reasonably based, is not...
Study of Failures of Towers and Tall Buildings Under Wind Loading
In this paper, two kinds of wind-excited limit states on a tall structure are investigated and corresponding formulae for the limit wind pressures are presented. In solving the wind-excited...
Damage Assessment for Reinforced Concrete Buildings with Shear Walls
This paper tries to establish the analytical method of damage assessment for R.C. buildings with shear walls before or after earthquake. Incremental nonlinear spectrum analysis, using...
Connectors for Earthquake Resistant Structures
Damage assessments from the past several earthquakes located on the northern, central and southern zones of the San Andreas Fault - Cape Mendocino: April 1992, 7.1; Loma Prieta: October...
Investigation of a Failed Concrete Joist System
The failure and distress of concrete joists contained in the promenade roof deck of a one-story, college, lecture hall building initiated an extensive investigation to determine the cause...
The Engineer's Role in Reducing Curtainwall Failures
For a variety of reasons, engineers have abdicated responsibility for curtainwall design. Failures of curtainwall components are very common, leading to expensive repairs and even complete...
Current Forensic Courses in Civil Engineering
The ASCE is taking a leadership role in the prevention of failures of engineered facilities. The Technical Council on Forensic Engineering Education Committee recently completed a survey...
Things That Fall?Lessons from Some Construction Accidents and Structural Failures
The causes and results of several construction accidents are reviewed. The lessons to be learned from such a summary are that all too often the simplest oversight leads to catastrophic...
Vortex Shedding Induced Fatigue Fracture of Mast Tower
The fracture of a pair of 60m high circular steel masts is investigated. The design criteria and fabrication practices are reviewed. The cause of failure is related to the fatigued condition...
Recent Developments in Seismic Isolation Technology
Large experimental research projects for isolators for both civil structures and nuclear reactor applications have been conducted at the Earthquake Engineering Research Center (EERC) over...
Mitigation of Wind-Created Risks During Construction
Wind damage to structures during construction has been found to be significant and often catastrophic. Structural failures are often the result of wind loads that are far less than the...
Interactive Buckling Analysis of Stiffened Shells Using Pregnant Sheel Elements
Two distinctive modes of failure dominate the failure of stiffened plates and shells, viz. the short-wave local mode and the long-wave overall mode. A new finite element technique which...
Modal Failure Probability and System Performance
It is pointed out that the modal failure probability, i.e., the probability that a structure fails in a particular mode, cannot be uniquely defined under the time-invariant framework....
Fatigue Reliability of Structural Systems Under Earthquake Loads
The authors have develop a methodology for calculating the expected low-cycle fatigue damage in structural components subjected to brief nonstationary random loads. The methodology is...
Steel Bar Joist Performance: Design Deficiencies and Defects
Several failures of steel bar joist roofs have been investigated by the authors in the past decade. Many of these failures or performance problems have corresponded to bar joists manufactured...
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