Establishing Patterns of Building Failures
Establishing statistical patterns of building failures can help engineers and architects prevent similar failures in the future and also reduce litigation. The Architecture and Engineering...
Window Glass in Extreme Winds: Design for Flying Debris
Whether or not to change design procedures for window glass in buildings subject to very high winds was debated at the ASCE Convention in Houston. Preventing gravel and other debris from...
Civil Engineering Productivity�Can It Be Boosted?
In the past 20 years, construction labor productivity has declined while private business productivity has risen. And construction's percent of U.S. GNP has dropped nearly...
How to Strengthen Client-Consultant Relationships
Effective use of a professional consultant is often diminished by poor management-staff communication. Consultants, because of their previous experience, may be able to provide input to...
High Rise Design: Accounting for Column Length Changes
In the late 1950's and early 1960's, the height of concrete buildings jumped from 20 to 60 stories. During the same period, architects introduced the use of exposed...
Fire Combustion Toxicity Tests�Good Idea or Not?
The smoke from burning synthetic materials in buildings is highly toxic and is a key cause of deaths in building fires. If fire codes regulate on the basis of the toxicity of smoke of...
Building Failures�Construction Related Problems and Solutions
A leadership group of representatives from the fields of structural design, construction, building inspection, the law and insurance agreed that if five changes are made in the way building...
A Look at the New ACI Concrete Code
Building Code Requirements for Reinforced Concrete (ACI 318-83) is discussed in terms of three major changes: limitations on chlorides, especially in aggregates, that affect durability;...
Tunnelling in Soil and Rock
The relationship between tunnel design and construction is covered with emphasis on case histories of field measurements and performance. A general report emphasizes the importance of...
Building Failures: Design Problems and Solutions
A Building Failures conference of the Engineering Foundation dissected the problems leading to failures and recommended ways to reduce failures. This article discusses value engineering,...
Seismic Design of Airport Control Towers
The paper describes state-of-the-art design in seismically active areas. It includes a review of current code design parameters and specific tower design criteria. Tower design examples...
An Overview of Earthquake Design Requirements at Pacific Bell
Seismic design considerations for the telephone system including outside plant and telephone equipment are discussed with emphasis placed on the requirements incorporated in the design...
Dome
Roofed with the worlds largest diameter wood dome at 530 ft., the Tacoma Dome, a multi-purpose sports and convention center has helped revitalize a blighted part of that Washington state...
Energy Recovery
In Albany, N.Y. the state and city cooperated in designing and building a refuse-into-steam energy plant that has several unique features. In most such facilities, the entire plant is...
Coupled Vertical-Rocking Response of Base-Isolated Structures
A base-isolated building can have a small horizontal eccentricity between the center of mass of the superstructure and the center of rigidity of the supporting bearings. The structure...
Evaluation of the Ultimate Pressure Capacity of Rectangular HVAC Ducts for Nuclear Power Plants
Structural design criteria are presently based on the AISI Code which limits the duct panel width-to-thickness ratio to a maximum of 500 and the maximum height-to-thickness ratio to 200,...
The Present Status of Application of the Plastic Concepts in Structural Design
The different approaches of recognizing plastic behavior in the design of steel structures are reviewed and the design requirements that assure successful utilization of this behavior...
Probing the Past
In Denver, Colorado, 12 buildings of an old abandoned brewery complex were to be renovated into a 270,000 sq ft shopping, entertainment and restaurant complex. Rather than conduct a thorough...
A Structural Engineering Perspective for Drilled Shafts
This commentary is an attempt to close the gap between the Building Code Requirements for Reinforced Concrete (ACE 318-83) and the design of drilled shafts. The context of design includes...
Planning of CAE and CADD Centers
The factors to be considered prior to the establishment of computer aided engineering or computer aided design and drafting centers are discussed. It is noted that the critical issues...
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