Electronic Gymnastics
Efforts are being made to have all the parties to a project share the same, current information. In order to do so, civil engineering firms are jumping through electronic hoops to get...
Optimization: An Emerging Technology
The technology of formal, numerical structural optimization is neither mysterious nor complex. Software programs are now available for use by engineers who do not have detailed knowledge...
CAD Trials
The solo practitioner is, for many reasons, at a disadvantage when it comes to analyzing and selecting CAD system components. Trade magazine how-to articles are generally geared toward...
Worth a Thousand Words
In recent years, microcomputers have grown powerful enough to take over many of the functions that once, only a mainframe could understand. In addition, they have added a few tricks of...
Computers: What Do Students Need to Know?
This article is based on interviews with three professors at three universities, a recent graduate from each school, and the graduate's employer. The interviews show that...
Automating Bridge Design
To avoid some of the pitfalls of manual design calculations, Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade & Douglas engineers designing a series of bridges for a $280 million section of the New...
Expert Systems for Risk Analysis
An explanation is presented on why construction risk analysis can be handled by an expert system computer program. The author offers a prototype construction risk management expert system...
Building Frame Analysis in Basic
Moment distribution has, for the past 30 years, been the most popular method of analysis for statically indeterminate structures. Programmed in Basic for the microcomputer with relative...
Overview of Canal Control Concepts
An overview of terminology and philosophies of canal control, plus brief descriptions of canal automation technologies, is given. The justification given for examining control schemes...
Long Crested Weirs
A method has been developed to integrate and evaluate the head relationship between canal weirs and turnouts. The objective is to minimize flow variations through the turnout and at the...
Physical Modeling of Contracted Flow
Experiments on steady flow over uniform grass roughness through centered single-opening contractions were conducted in the Flood Plain Simulation Facility at the U. S. Geological Survey's...
Density Currents in Clarifiers
This paper discusses internal flow regimes associated with the density currents due to diurnal heat loading. The reported studies were carried out with the aid of physical models....
Riprap Stability on Channel Slide Slopes
The stability of riprap placed on a sloping bank is decreased because one component of gravity tends to displace the rock down the slope. Results of riprap stability tests on sloping banks...
Estimating Average Velocity in Cobble-Bed Channels
A data set obtained from natural channels having D//5//0 less than 64 mm and d/D//5//0 in the range of 3 to 20 is used as a basis for testing equations proposed by Limerinos, Thompson...
Air Regulated Siphons as Irrigation Canal Outlets
This paper investigates the possibility of using air regulated siphons as outlets from irrigation canals. Although a solution to a specific problem is sought, it is recognized that the...
Air Chamber Surge Tanks in High Head Hydro Plants
The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers Alaska District considered an air chamber during the design of the 'Crater Lake phase of the Snettisham Project near Juneau, Alaska. A conventional...
A Mathematical Model for River Ice
Several computer models for simulating river ice conditions have been developed (Petryk, 1986). All of these models simulate frazil ice production, and the progression, erosion and melting...
Open Channel Flow Resistance in Horseshoe Conduits
An experimental study of open channel flow resistance in horseshoe-shaped conduits is reported. The friction factor is shown to increase approximately 20 percent in comparison to values...
On the Definition of Fluid Mud
Fluid mud is a near-bed, high density cohesive sediment suspension layer which is a common cause of estuarial and nearshore sedimentation. It is noted that for a given sediment-fluid mixture,...
Laboratory Study of Mud Flows
In the study reported depth profiles and tip velocities were measured for a series of unsteady mud flows generated in a laboratory flume using a dam break scenario. Observation of a wide...
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