Politics and Engineering
The 1991 winner of the Daniel W. Mead Student essay contest states that there is a stereotype of engineers as those who derive recreational pleasure from seeing who can do most with a...
Analyzing Risk
Engineers designing major projects must often grapple with large areas of uncertainty�from estimating the seismic hazard to a nuclear powerplant to the potential effects of decades of...
Pumping Oil, Treating Soil
Oil was discovered on hilltop land in Signal Hill, Calif., in 1921, setting off one of the most wild land rushes the state has ever seen. Some 70 years and 20,000 oil wells later, the...
Excavating, OSHA-Style
When the Occupational Safety and Health Administration implemented its new, tougher trenching guidelines in July 1990, the agency opened the door for inventive excavation techniques. Contractors...
Dam Foundation Grouting
Selling to Civil Engineers
A Multiple Market Opportunity
It covers the engineered construction market, the rehab market, and the environmental market....
Reliability of Large Technological Systems
Codes and regulations regarding large technological systems of growing complexity should take into account the increasingly sophisticated analysis tools that have been and are being developed...
Wind-Induced Response of Torsionally Coupled Buildings
This paper summarizes the results of a comprehensive three-dimensional dynamic analysis of tall buildings subjected to fluctuating wind forces. Random vibration theory is used to relate...
Identification of Critical Load Distributions for Wind Loading
For practical application as well as for sophisticated investigations, the time dependent stochastic wind process has to be simplified in terms of input data to the calculation. Usually,...
Optimal Distribution of Tuned Mass Dampers in Wind-Sensitive Structures
Modern high-rise buildings are susceptible to excessive accelerations at the upper floors in wind storms due to flexibility and low damping. In order to keep acceleration levels below...
Collision Risk Analysis Fixed Platform and Semisubmersible
This paper summarizes the North Sea experience pertaining to mooring line failures of conventional 8 and 12 anchor line systems. Mooring system calculations, experience and test results...
Probabilistic Risk Analysis of TLP Tether Fracture
A stochastic model for fatigue crack growth and final fracture of TLP tethers is formulated. Model updating through in-service inspection is included. The integrity of the cracked tether...
Largest and Characteristic Earthquakes in the U.S. East of the Rocky Mountains
A new statistical procedure is proposed for the estimation of maximum earthquake magnitude M in intraplate regions. Starting from a historical catalog of events and a seismotectonic classification...
Automated Damage-Controlled Design of RC Buildings
This paper presents an automated damage-controlled design method, which aims for uniform damage distribution throughout the entire building frame while respecting the strong-column weak-beam...
Simple Damage Predictors for Large-Scale Seismic Risk Mapping
Although it is now recognized that there is a risk of moderate seismic activity in the Eastern United States, many existing buildings were not designed for earthquake forces. To evaluate...
Seismic Fragility Analysis of Shear Wall Structures
This paper presents an analytical method to generate seismic fragility curves for shear wall structures. Uncertainties in earthquake motion and structure are quantified by evaluating uncertainties...
Response Modification Factors for Buildings and Bridges
Response Modification Factors (RMF) are often used for the seismic design and the safety evaluation of buildings and bridges. The advantage of using RMF is to account for the nonlinear...
Wind Vs. Seismic Design
This paper is concerned with the reliability analysis of building structures subjected to multiple natural hazards (seismic and wind in this case) within the framework of contemporary...
Reliability-Based Design Codes
Reliability analysis for code-designed simple structures subjected to earthquake loading are being determined using both static and dynamic methods and strength-based and damage-related...
Multi-Hazard Risk Assessment of an Offshore Structure
This paper develops and illustrates a methodology for multi-hazard modal risk assessment. The case study involves assessing risk to an offshore structure in a load environment consisting...
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