Preventing Another Sunshine Skyway Bridge Disaster
America will not soon forget the tragic collapse of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge into Tampa Bay almost two years ago. That accident was a costly lesson in the crucial importance of protecting...
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...
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....
Cold Regions Engineering in Norway
The use of insulating materials is a key factor in cold regions engineering in Norway. It is applied in road construction in areas where frost heave and reduced bearing capacity would...
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...
Energy Turns the World as a World's Fair Turns a City Around
Energy Expo '82 opens May 1 and will run through October 31, 1982. Host City, Knoxville, Tennessee has taken advantage of the fair as a catalyst for growth and urban renewal...
Minicomputers in Structural Optimum Design
A problem dealing with the weight optimization of girders without transverse stiffeners is demonstrated. Constraints follow the 1978 AISC Specification. Actual programming is done in BASIC...
Application of Walls to Landslide Control Problems
The evolution of tieback restraint systems is presented. Case histories describe current practices for tieback design and construction and give examples of how the requirements were met...
Addressing Societal Needs of the 1980's Through Civil Engineering Research
Critical issues facing society in ten subdisciplines of civil engineering are defined and the research required to provide solutions to these issues in each area is identified. The ten...
Olmos Dam Modifications
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Denny Creek: The Toughest Bridge Washington State Ever Built
The story of how highway planners and engineers in Washington State's Department of Transportation were stopped from building a highway and viaduct through a pristine wilderness...
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,...
Directional Wave Spectra Applications
These collected papers and their ensuing discussions presented at the September, 1981 symposium at the University of California on directional wave spectra applications examine the present...
Steel Structures Provide Flexibility
The steel structures of several major buildings are evaluated by the structural engineers responsible for the design and construction. Included are the Park Avenue Atrium in New York;...
At Four Western Stadiums, Wood Comes Out on Top
In recent years, several long-span timber roofs have been constructed atop large arenas and stadiums in the Western states. The choice of glued-laminated timber offers designers good economy,...
For Office Buildings: Long Span Concrete Slabs
A survey of 36 office buildings in the United States and Canada featuring long span concrete slabs showed concrete is a technically feasible and cost effective material for office structures....
Knoxville's Junction Functions
The urban highway system in Knoxville was originally built as a local expressway in the early 1950's. It was designed to significantly lower standards than Interstate and...
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...
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