Safety Aspects of Detroit DPM Station Designs
The Detroit Downtown People Mover (DDPM), currently under construction in the Central Business District of downtown Detroit, offered a unique set of challenges to the architects and engineers...
Fire Combustion Toxicity Tests�Good Idea or Not?
The smoke from burning synthetic materials in buildings is highly toxic and is a key cause of deaths in building fires. If fire codes regulate on the basis of the toxicity of smoke of...
Structural Plastics Design Manual
The structural behavior of plastics reflects a number of characteristics different from those of the metal, lumber, and concrete materials familiar to most design engineers. This manual...
Building Failures�Preventing Them, Learning from Them
Ways to design and construct a structure so as to minimize chances of errors leading to failure are described. Held up as models of systematically investigating failures are the incident-study...
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...
Rx�Treated Lumber & Metal + Corrosion Ailments
The use of metal elements in contact with fire-treated lumber requires special precautions. It is a problem that has not received much attention in the literature directed to the design...
Organic Chemical Fire in Illinois: Emergency Response and Cleanup
In April 1980 at Hillsboro, Illinois, a fire in an agricultural chemical warehouse generated a hazardous smoke plume, and some 250,000 gallons of water used in fighting the fire were highly...
Fighting Fire With Concrete
Fire departments have been required to handle an increasing number of fires in multi-story buildings. A fire department in a rapidly developing suburb of Indianapolis, Ind., undertook...
Preventing the Underground Movement of Methane from Sanitary Landfills
Alternatives for controlling methane gas migration from sanitary landfills are evaluated. The conditions leading to explosions and fires from concentrations of methane are discussed. Advantages...
1842: Old Croton Aqueduct Brings Water, Rescues Manhattan From Fire, Disease
From 1774 to 1835 Manhattan experienced tremendous growth but needed better water supply to protect public health and to fight fires. Several proposals for providing water were forwarded...
The extraordinary genius of Arthur E. Morgan
He saw himself as lamentably ordinary and sought to make his mark in some socially significant way. Early in the century he engineered the Miami Conservancy District-the first flood control...
Kansas City Bank Tower Features Water-Filled Columns, Exposed Spandrels
In this first article in a series on recent innovations in structural steel design, the spotlight is on the 20-story Mercantile Bank Tower in Kansas City. This structure features several...
Birth of the Skyscraper
Before invention of the elevator, six stories was the practical limit to the height of a commercial building. Following the Chicago fire of 1871, building designers there were quick to...
ASCE Tackles Standards
ASCE is sharply expanding its standards activity. Standards committees are at work in the fields of building loads, fire safety of structures, steel box-girder bridges, nuclear power plants...
New Era in Fire Protective Coatings for Steel
Building designers have been receptive to new approaches to fireproofing steel. Among alternatives to traditional fireproofing now on the market: (1)Medium density inorganic systems such...
How Concerned Should Civil Engineers be with Fire Protection�
During the last five years, there has been increasing concern and interest in fire safety in buildings, especially tall buildings. This has resulted in new federal legislation, a new General...
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