Failure of the Breakwater at Port Sines, Portugal
The objectives of the Port Sines Investigation Panel were to collect perishable data on and to identify causes of the failure on February 26, 1978, of the rubble mound breakwater at Port...
World's Largest Installation of Fabric-Formed Pile Jackets
One major feature of fabric forming is permeability. One application of this technique is protective encasement of steel H and pipe piles at a major pier in Chile. The Huachipato Pier...
Engineer's Notebook: One-step Formula for R/C Tension Steel
In the design of reinforced concrete beams, after loadings and materials are defined, the first step is to assume a beam depth. Then the required steel area and beam width are determined....
An Improved Design for Grain Storage Tanks Solves Problem of Brittle Failures
The welded tank features fracture-tough steel and tube stiffeners to overcome problems evident in several failures of major tanks in recent years. Used extensively for grain storage in...
U.S. Response to Coal Demand: Port and Harbor Improvements
The OPEC oil embargo, which caused long gasoline lines in 1973, caused incredibly long lines of coal ships along the East coast just last year. These ships came to bet coal to fuel overseas...
Behind the Sines, Protugal Breakwater Failure
This article highlights a report on the possible causes of failure of the massive, $178 million breakwater at Sines, Portugal. This was the largest breakwater of its kind in the world....
Causes and Preventions of Lamellar Tearing: Engineer's Notebook
Within the past 10 years, a steel cracking problem, lamellar tearing, has arisen after welding of thicker sections and higher-strength steels. A separation underlying a weld joining plate...
Fiber-Reinforced Concrete Proves Worth for Airport Pavements
Laboratory and field tests indicate that fiber-reinforced concrete has higher flexural and tensile strength, higher impact resistance, and improved resistance to spalling and joint deterioration...
Trouble Shooting ChemicaLly Resistant Masonry
This paper is a series of case histories showing specifically how lack of understanding of the nature of the materials and their proper uses has caused failure in design, specification,...
Emerging High Performance Structural Plastic Technology
Structural plastics have forced their growth by better performance over conventional materials in hostile environments. Demand by industry for increased life of process equipment and structures...
Olmos Dam Modifications
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Structural Safety
Future building codes will go far beyond the classical emphasis on dimensioning, calculations, and specification writing. Emphasis will shift from scientific thinking to strategic thinking,...
Some Proposals for Reducing Structural Failures
Illinois is one of the few states requiring a Structural Engineer's License: a P.E. alone is not enough to practice structural engineering there. Unfortunately, even in Illinois,...
Microcomputers: Do They Have a Place in Large Engineering Firms?
During the past few years, microcomputers have really begun to take hold in small consulting engineering firms. Less well known is the fact that microcomputers are also beginning to take...
State-of-the-Art Report on Finite Element Analysis of Reinforced Concrete
This comprehensive state-of-the-art report contains a summary of the special features of finite element analysis applied to reinforced concrete, including: constitutive relationships,...
Collapse of the Kansas City Hyatt Regency Walkways
A summary of the National Bureau of Standards report on the collapse of the Kansas City Hyatt Regency walkways is presented. The report does not assign blame to any party; rather, it explains...
Classic Papers in Hydraulics
Fourteen papers representing basic contributions which made possible rapid advances in analytical techniques in hydraulic engineering are presented. The papers reflect state-of-the-art-...
Engineers Notebook: Checking Capacities of Eccentrically Loaded Columns on an Existing Bridge
This article focuses on the structural analysis of eccentrically loaded columns. A simple and novel graphical technique for determining the load-carrying capacity of the columns is presented....
Replacing Corroded Cables on a Cable-Stayed Bridge
The cable-stayed bridge across Venezuela's Lake Maracaibo is among the longest bridges of its type. But after years of service, corroded cables threatened to snap, which would...
Evaluation, Maintenance and Upgrading of Wood Structures
Prepared by the Subcommittee on Evaluation, Maintenance, and Upgrading of Timber Structures of the Committee on Wood of the Structural Division of ASCE. ...
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