Engineering: Environmental vs. Developmental Goals
The 1992 winner of the Daniel W. Mead Student Paper competition explores the potential conflict for engineers, between environmental and developmental goals. Noting a dictionary definition...
Data Validation Practices and Risk Assessment
The accuracy of environmental site assessments depends on the validity of the data used to make them, but all too often, the people who judge the quality of the data have little idea of...
Banking on a Bridge
Completing the geotechnical design for the approach embankments and foundations for the Charter Oak Bridge, which crosses the Connecticut River between Hartford and East Hartford, Conn.,...
Analytical Platform Development for Precast Structural Systems
The multi-investigator PRESS (Precast Seismic Structural Systems) research project requires an analysis tool that can be used to perform nonlinear seismic analyses of a wide variety of...
Buildings with Response Control Systems in Japan
Today, there are more than 30 buildings with response control systems. The system is defined as one that suppresses or controls the response to the vibrational motion input of the buildings,...
Observed Response of Actively Controlled Structures
Several active control systems have been developed, fabricated, and installed in full-scale structures and they have been subjected to actual wind forces and ground motions. The focus...
Data Base for Seismis Rick Assessment in Mexico City
We describe a model to estimate expected ground motions and expected damage, based on intensity damage relations derived for 14 classes of buildings representative of Mexico City construction....
GIS Mapping of Earthquake Ground Shaking in San Francisco, California
Severe earthquakes of the last decade in Mexico, Armenia, and the United States have reemphasized the importance of local geologic site conditions in estimating damage and consequent losses....
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...
Code Provisions for Unreinforced Masonry Bearing Wall Buildings in California
Prior to the Long Beach earthquake of 1933, unreinforced masonry (URM) construction was usual in California, as it still is in many areas of the United States. The poor performance of...
Dynamic Field Response Studies and Earthauqke Instrumentation of the Meloland Road Overcrossing
Ambient vibration data was obtained at the Meloland Road Overcrossing near El Centro in California by The California Department of Transportation (CALTRANS) as part of a 1978 Federal Highway...
Fundamental Issues in Seismic Safety in Midwestern U.S. Due to Hazard/Vulnerability Relation
Problems in establishing and mitigating seismic risk in urban areas when seismicity is not confidently based on instrumental records are discussed. Urban Southwestern Ohio is a specific...
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...
85 Stories in Kuala Lumpur?The 5th and 6th Tallest Buildings in the World
A concrete core and cylindrical concrete tube structure provides a safe, elegant, efficient and constructible solution to the challenge of designing the world's 5th and 6th tallest buildings,...
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...
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...
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...
Seismic Strengthening for Structures in Regions of Low Seismicity
Most existing structures were not designed to today's seismic codes and standards, and in fact in low seismicity regions codes did not require seismic design until recently....
Seismic Assessment and Renovation Study for Highway Bridges
This paper is concerned with hazards mitigation on highway bridges due to earthquake ground motions. Damage to transportation systems may occur if the acting faults of May-Shan and Tsu-Kou...
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