Hydrotest Rupture of Penstuck Liner at Bath County
Bath County is the construction site of Virginia Electric and Power Company's pumped storage project. Rupture of a penstock liner during hydrotest at high pressure threatened...
Avoiding Cavitation Damage to Hydraulic Structures
Cavitation damage often may be avoided by not allowing cavities to form. Where boundaries are not deeply submerged, their shape must be exactly correct, irregularities must be very small,...
High Tech Is More Than a Look
Hollow steel section, also known as tubular steel, is being used for its clean dramatic look, its structural efficiency in compression, the economic efficiency of combining structure and...
Working Abroad? What About Taxes?
Highlights of the 1981 Tax Act are explained. The Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 was intended to simplify the calculations required to arrive at taxable income both for citizens abroad...
Forensic Engineering: What Role for ASCE?
Responding to heightened concern within and without the American Society for Civil Engineers (ASCE) about failures of engineered structures and other works, ASCE formed two commitees to...
Sewers: Repairing Beats Replacing
Rehabilitating decaying sewers can be up to 70% less costly than replacing them. Yet most sewerage agencies wait until a pipe collapses before taking action, necessitating expensive emergency...
Existing Sewer Evaluation and Rehabilitation
Guidlines for the evaluation and rehabilitation of sanitary sewers are presented. The purpose and scope of sanitary sewer rehabilitation is described. The major emphasis is on filtration...
Structural Analysis of Light-Frame Subassemblies
Conventional light-frame subassemblies have a long history of good performance. Until recently this performance could not be quantified adequately because of the complex ways in which...
Journal of Geotechnical Engineering
Journal of Geotechnical Engineering covers the field of soil mechanics and foundations, with special emphasis on the relationship between the geologic environmental and man-made works. Computer applications...
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...
Micro-Computer Program: Roof Purlin Design
A micro-computer program is explained in step-by-step manner as a shortcut for biaxial bending design with results in as little as 60 seconds. Biaxial bending requires the consideration...
Cofferdams Protecting New York Bridges from Ship Collisions
During the past few decades, there have been a number of cases where ships have rammed bridge piers, triggering the superstructure's collapse. The most tragic case was the...
Failure of the Breakwater at Port Sines, Portugal
The objectives of the Port Sines Investigation Panel were to collect perishable data on and to identify causes of the failure on February 26, 1978, of the rubble mound breakwater at Port...
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....
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...
Trouble Shooting ChemicaLly Resistant Masonry
This paper is a series of case histories showing specifically how lack of understanding of the nature of the materials and their proper uses has caused failure in design, specification,...
Olmos Dam Modifications
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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,...
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