Universal Beams and their application Discussion on the paper by S. Barlow, M.I.Struct.E., and G. Fo

THE PRESIDENT introduced the Lecturer, who then presented his paper.

QUEEN’S QUAY fronts the River Lagan north of Queen’s Bridge on the County Down side of Belfast Harbour (Fig. 1) and accommodates a large part of the coal traffic into the Port. In 1948 the Belfast Harbour Commissioners decided that that portion of the quay which lay north of any of the suggested sites for the proposed new road bridge across the river should be reconstructed to improve the coal handling facilities. This paper will deal with the construction of the first 1,250 feet of quay which was carried out between 1949 and 1951. R. J. N. Sweetnam

STANCHION bases, and foundations or other supporting media should never be designed only on the basis that the vertical load supported by the stanchion is uniformly distributed over the base and stanchion areas even in cases where bending moments due to applied lateral loads or eccentric vertical loads are not present. It may be that, in proportioning the stanchion shaft section, it is assumed that the base is 'hinged' or 'pinned.' If a true hinge or pin is supplied the shaft, under load, will take up a slope at the end and there will be a shear force present (2 1/2per cent of the applied load per B.S.449 and C.P.l13), but at the hinge or pin the bending moment will be zero. If a base plate is used instead of a hinge or pin and the shaft takes up a slope at the end, the base plate will not remain horizontal and it cannot be said that "the base distributes the load uniformly." If the base remains flat, the end of the shaft remains vertical, and for this to be the case there must be a bending moment at the base of the stanchion in addition to the shear force and the vertical load. G.J. Voce