Notes on Statistics of Failures of Constructed Works
This paper is concerned with both catastrophic and sub-catastrophic failures, which may be categorized into three types: Safety (type S), Functional (type F), and Ancillary (type A). Often...
Failure Statistics Categorized by Cause and Generic Class
Failures can be classified into the three categories, ie. , SAFETY, FUNCTIONAL, and ANCILLARY. Within the causation definition, failures fall into five general areas: DESIGN DEFICIENCIES;...
Failure Investigation Process
The purpose of this paper is to consider the present failure investigation process, in order to assess whether failures are being properly investigated, and also whether sufficient information...
Alternative Procedures for Investigating Failures
Failures of engineered structures continue to occur. This is despite rapid advances in engineering theory, new, more sophisticated methods of analysis, and streamlined techniques for preparing...
Information Availability
There seems to be a great deal of concern about lack of availability of information concerning the results of failure investigations. In most court cases there is virtually no technical...
Failure Information Needs in Civil Engineering
If we are to learn from failures of engineered facilities, failure information must be in a useful form, and it must reach those who can effect improved practice. This paper discusses,...
Learning from Failures
Modern technology and innovation have created a gap between what the design drawings predict with respect to safety and serviceability of a structure and the real safety and serviceability...
Learning from Failures: Procedural Changes in the Design and Construction Process to Reduce Failures
This paper first defines failures and their number and scope in the design and construction fields. It then presents the writer's opinion as to the cause of the failures and...
Failure Investigations in Undergraduate Education
Author stresses the need for failure investigations in undergraduate education especially in Civil Engineering. The civil engineer often creates only one major project of a kind, and is...
Construction Scheduling for Public Sector Projects
The paper presents some types of scheduling systems that are utilized in Postal Service projects as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each. It is suggested that schedule approval...
Simulating Construction Operations by Microcomputer
Field operations on major construction projects involve complex interactions among construction equipment, materials and supplies, skilled craft resources, and technical and administrative...
Evaluation and Modernization of Veterans Administration Facilitaties
This paper discusses two examples showing in detail that procedures for building assessment require much consideration for engineers' programming and must be properly specified...
Research Needs for Extant Iron and Steel Buildings
A brief review of iron- and steel-making processes is background for the development of shapes and codes. Sources of information for the condition assessment of iron and steel buildings...
Analysis of Cracking of I79 Bridge at Neville Island
A large crack was discovered to form in a girder of the I-79 Glenfield Bridge over the back channel of the Ohio River near Pittsburgh on January 28, 1977. A section of the girder containing...
Investigation of Catastrophic Failure of a Premium-Alloy Railroad Rail
In November 1983 an Amtrak train derailed at a speed of 72 mph (115 kph) at Woodlawn, Texas (in the vicinity of Marshall, Texas), resulting in four fatalities and twenty-four serious injuries....
Tension-Compression Test of a Concrete Specimen Via a Structure Damage Theory
The concrete sample is assumed to consist of a large number of aggregates and cement paste. Their material properties are assumed to be perfectly elastic. The effective elastic property...
Time-Dependent Damage and Creep of Brittle Rock
In this paper, some results of a combined analytical-experimental study of the relationship between subcritical microcrack growth due to stress corrosion and the time-dependent deformation...
Continuum Modeling of Discrete Structures with Geometric Nonlinearities
The modeling of geometrically non-linear discrete structures by an equivalent continuum is presented. The discrete-continuum analogy is developed by first isolating a unit cell of the...
Use of Computer Graphics in the Analysis of Large Space Structures
This paper illustrates how interactive computer graphics can provide a useful tool in setting up analytical models of structural latticeworks comprised of large numbers of degrees of freedom...
Damage Detection in Periodic Structures
Nondestructive damage detection in periodic structures using continuum analogues of the discrete structure is studied. Algebraic equations relating changes in eigenfrequencies to the fractional...
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