Development of Computer-Based Models of Standards and Attendant Knowledge-Base and Procedural Systems
Existing and new technology can be used to develop a new generation of standards that would allow designers to use complex standards efficiently, help standard-writing bodies to detect...
Investigation of Full-Scale Performance of Structures?Research Potentials
It is well known that actual, or true, behavior of completed structures does not necessarily conform to often simplified analysis predictions. This may be due to any of several reasons...
Behavior of Horizontally Curved Steel Highway Bridges
Horizontally curved highway bridges represent up to 25 percent of the market for new steel-bridge construction each year. However, unanswered questions remain concerning the fundamental...
Bridge Management Research Needs
The present article deals with some aspects of bridge management of particular interest to bridge engineers and to bridge users at the moment. It addresses questions such as life-cycle...
Steel Alternates for the Hoover Dam Bridge
As input to the Environmental Impact Statement studies of appropriate long span bridges were performed for three alternate corridors across the Colorado River near Hoover Dam. Details...
Conceptual Design of a Monitoring System for Maglev Guideways
The state-of-the-art in nondestructive testing (NDT) technology has advanced significantly over the past fifteen years and has reached a stage where continuous monitoring of structures...
Bridge Engineering and Life Cycle Cost
The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA) requires that all Federal Aid projects must 'consider...the use of life-cycle costs in the design and engineering of...
Recent Successes in Welding Jumbo Shapes
A rather unique structure utilizing jumbo shapes was recently designed and fabricated. The structure was 100% welded according to the specifications for welding jumbo shapes recently developed...
An Overview of the Potential Applications of Neural Networks in Civil Engineering
Neural networks are computational models inspired by the structure and operation of the brain. They are massively parallel systems, made up of a large number of highly interconnected,...
Time Variant Reliability Under Environmental Loads
Time variant reliability with deteriorating resistance under a stochastic load process is considered. An outcrossing formulation for fatigue degradation is presented, and a simple and...
The Use of Built-Up Compression Members?A Fabricator's Viewpoint
A variety of cross-sections of built-up compression members that have been used are shown. Suggested items that need to be addressed for the successful design and fabrication are discussed....
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...
Monitoring Performance of Full Scale Structures
General Physics Services Corporation (GPSC) of Columbia, Maryland has developed a device for the remote long-term monitoring of full scale structures, such as highway bridges. This patented...
What is Optimization?
Basic concepts of optimization are described using design of a plate girder as an example. First, a way to formulate the problem as an optimization problem is presented. Then basic terminologies...
How to Optimize Steel Frameworks
This paper presents the details of a design synthesis strategy to conduct computer-automated design of least-weight structural steel frameworks, where members are automatically sized using...
How to Optimize Prestressed Concrete Systems?
Three common problems of prestressed concrete optimization, that involve only a single structural analysis and can readily be solved by available programs, are presented: 1. The problem...
How to Include Reliability Constraints in Structural Optimization
Structural optimization is a complex process made of design cycles aimed at finding the best possible solution. At each design cycle ultimate and/or serviceability limit states must be...
Teaching Structural Engineering in Year 2000
The paper addresses the need for changes in engineering education in order to keep pace with the changes that have and will continue to take place in the workplace. Over the past 40 years...
Interfacing Academia and the Practicing Profession
The paper presents a discussion of current topics and instructional methods in structural engineering in the United States. Following a review of typical subject matter in analysis and...
What Attributes Should the Structural Engineering Graduate Possess?
This paper will discuss the need for structural engineering students to be trained to think in terms of the performance of the structural system as a whole, rather than the individual...
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