Issue 6

SIR - In view of the importance of British Standard Specifications to the structural engineering profession, perhaps you could publish in THE STRUCTURAL ENGINEER the following remarks regarding the draft revision to B.S.449 which has been circulated to obtain comments from the industry.

THE paper discusses the general energy basis of structural problems of equilibrium, stability and vibrations making use of Hamilton’s principle of least action as a starting point. The forms which the energy takes in the various cases are shown and the analytical method of solution is then followed. This is compared with the functional approximation methods of Rayleigh-Ritz, Lagrange and Galerkin. The useful property of orthogonality is briefly discussed. A number of examples are then given which demonstrate the use of the above methods to some simple problems of structural mechanics. P.B. Morice

MR. L. E. HAWKINS said he had been concerned with two of the bridges and he was very interested to read in Mr. Palmer’s Paper about the Southern Railway work.

IN the past it has been usual when designing eccentrically loaded footings to assume that the pressure distribution across the base of the footing would be linear and that the maximum value of the pressure must be limited to that permissible under a centrally loaded footing. W. Eastwood